Illegal stick beats Bishop's as Redmen advance

MONTREAL -- Nick Moreau of Trumbull, Conn., and Scott Bailey of Calgary, each notched hat-tricks as McGill posted a convincing 13-7 playoff win over visiting Bishop’s in a Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association’s sudden-death eastern quarterfinal at Forbes Field, Saturday.

McGill advances to the CUFLA Bagattaway Cup national championship tournament, which features a new ‘Final Four’ format, scheduled to be played at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., Nov. 8-9.

The Redmen jumped out to a fast start, leading 5-2 after the opening quarter and 9-3 at halftime.  BU was unable recover from the six-goal deficit and trailed 10-4 after the third quarter. The teams traded three goals apiece in the final stanza.

The Gaiters appeared to rally in the third quarter when Jimmy Southall of New Westminster, B.C., the CUFLA player of the year in 2007, scored an apparent goal to make it 10-5 but McGill head coach Tim Murdoch called for a stick check.  Southall’s stick was examined by the officials and deemed to be illegal, so the goal was nullified, the Gaiters were slapped with a mandatory three-minute penalty and they were not a factor the rest of the way.

"I took a chance on that stick check," said Murdoch. "It was worth the risk of a penalty (against McGill had the stick been legal). Southall ran through a number of checks to score what appeared to be a very uplifting goal for them.  That goal was critical for the Gaiters and it clearly took the wind out of their sails when it was disallowed."

McGill showed balance in its offensive production with nine different players scoring.

"We were clicking offensively tonight," said Murdoch. "It’s really hard to stop a team when they have goals coming from all directions."

Moreau, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound attackman, finished with four-point night and Jake Safarik, a senior from Vancouver, B.C., tallied a pair of goals and two assists to go along with some gritty ground-ball play.

"Safarik led the charge for us tonight," added Murdoch. "He totally dominated the groundball play and had an amazing game. He hates the Gaiters because he remembers how they used to rub it in against us when they were a powerhouse and we were a struggling club a few years ago."

Other McGill marksmen included junior Luke LaCava of Weston, Conn., who scored twice, plus freshman Will Edwards of Cincinnati, Ohio, senior Arthur Phillips of Portland, Me., and Mike Ting, a sophomore from Sudbury, Mass.

McGill goaltender Guy Fox, a junior from Glen Rock, N.J., made several acrobatic stops for the victory. His defensive unit, composed of Jonathan Zimmerman of Westport, Conn., Sepp Stephens of Chapel Hill, N.C., Greg Simkiss of Haverford, Penn., and Brendan Farrer of Oakville, Ont., muzzled a normally potent Bishop’s offence.

Attackman Andy Barber, a senior from New Westminster, B.C., and sophomore midfielder Josh Crone of Cambridge, Ont., had two goals apiece in the losing cause for third-place Gaiters. Rounding out the scoring for BU was Southall (one goal, one assist), Mike Dube of Brockville, Ont., and Jesse Gattellaro of Aurora, Ont.

REDMEN RAP: The Redmen are 10-4 overall, including a 7-3 regular season record. They will likely play Brock, the six-time defending national champion, unless fourth-seed McMaster upsets the top-seeded Badgers in a Western quarterfinal, slated for Sunday. If McMaster wins, then McGill would play Guelph... In Sunday’s other CUFLA-East quarterfinal, top-seeded Trent hosts fourth-seeded Queen’s in Peterborough, Ont.,  while Brock, the top-ranked team in the western conference, hosts fourth-place McMaster in St. Catharines, Ont., and third-seeded Western travels to play No.2-Guelph.


SCORING SUMMARY

McGill 13, Bishop’s 7 (CUFLA EAST-Quarterfinal)

SCORING BY QUARTER:

McGill:     5-4-1-3 -- 13
Bishop’s: 2-1-1-3 -- 7

McGILL SCORING HIGHLIGHTS:

Nick Moreau: 3 goals, 1 assist
Jake Safarik: 2 goals, 2 assists
Scott Bailey: 3 goals
Luke LaCava: 2 goals 1 assist
Will Edwards: 1 goal
Arthur Phillips: 1 goal
Mike Ting: 1 goal
Brendan Farrer: 1 assist
Matt Jankowski: 1 assist

BISHOP’S SCORING HIGHLIGHTS:

Andy Barber: 2 goals
Josh Crone: 2 goals, 1 assist
Jimmy Southall: 1 goal, 1 assist
Mike Dube: 1 goal
Jesse Gattellaro: 1 goal
Jackson Gair: 2 assists
Alex Inch: 1 assist


GOALTNDERS:
McGill: Guy Fox (W, 80:00, 6GA)
Bishop’s: Brennan Durovick (L; 80:00, 13GA)

PENALTIES:
Bishop’s 14
McGill 9


SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
McGill Sports Info Officer