Indians Lose Final

By Derrick Lafrance

The Akwesasne Jr. "B" Indians lacrosse team only twice lost back to back games all season. The second time was the one that hurt.

Last Wednesday in a filled-to-the-rafters arena on Kawehnoke the visiting Six Nations Rebels punched their ticket to the Founders Cup tournament with a 12-9 hard fought win.

This was the deciding game five in the Ontario Jr. championship game and Akwesasne looked ready to win as Kyren Sunday scored off the opening faceoff. Tyler Armstrong took the draw and got the ball to Sunday for the first goal eighteen seconds into the game.

Kainen Francis added another a minute and a half later as he weaved and bobbed his way through the crease to make it 2-0.

Six Nations almost had their first marker shortly afterward as Elijah Brown-Gregory got the ball past Indians goalie Gage King but it bounced out of the crease.

The Rebels did get on the board five minutes into the game as Marshall Powless collected a Chayton King rebound and tucked it home with a backhand.

From then on Six Nations added three more goals to start to run away but Francis scored his second of the evening with a flying through the crease goal while shorthanded with Blaze White setting him up.

This stopped the Six Nations run until Powless scored his second of the game with 25 seconds in the first and it ended 5-3 for the Rebels.

In the second period the Indians again struck early as Sunday netted his second on a blast from just outside the dots but again Six Nations scored in bunches to pull ahead 8-4. King collected the natural hattrick for those three.

Three minutes into the third period Powless scored his hattrick as he took a beauty of a running pass from Sidney Powless and scored to make it 9-4.

Sekawnee Baker kept the Indians in the game with their fifth goal assisted by Nonkon Thompson and White.

Marshall Powless completed his four-goal game with a goal to make it 10-5

Again, before the Rebels could run off with this game, Keldren King went one-on-one with Rebels goalie Briley Miller and scored.

Konner Sunday added a goal moments later to make it 10-7.

The Rebels Wes Whitlow scored to go ahead by four before Tommy Boy Thomas took out a Rebels player with a big hit and collected the ball to score and make it 11-8.

Sekawnee Baker scored their ninth goal as he hustled around the Six Nations net. First, he knocked the ball loose, passed it around the crease and when he got it back he blasted it in.

In the wild second half of the third period Chayton King of Six Nations was denied by Indians goalie King but the rebound came out to Whitlow to score.

In the final five minutes Akwesasne had a big chance to get in this game as the Rebels were hit by penalties, but the clock and the season ended for the Indians – winners of the Eastern Division of the Ontario Jr. "B" League.

The Rebels will join the First Nations Jr. League champion Seneca WarChiefs, Calgary Shamrocks, Manitoba Blizzard, Saskatchewan S.W.A.T., Coquitlam Adinacks and North Shore Kodiaks, who are representing Quebec.

The tournament began last Tuesday in Winnipeg, Manitoba.