Sun Devils rack up 42 goals in weekend sweep

By Ryan McCracken on June 4, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

There was simply no stopping the Medicine Hat Sun Devils this weekend at the Kinplex.

After kicking off the weekend with a lopsided 18-10 victory over the Calgary Sabrecats Saturday, the Sun Devils amped up the offence in a 24-3 blowout of the Strathmore Venom to surpass the .500 mark at 8-6 with five games left in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League junior B Tier 2 regular season.

“We’ve just been passing, playing quick. We’re trying to keep the defence on their toes, we’re throwing pick-and-rolls, just everything we can get at the net and make the smartest play possible. It’s been working out for us,” said Sun Devils captain Damon Phillips, adding defence played a sizeable hand in securing the weekend’s victories. “We kind of shut down as many shots as we possibly could. We gave them the bad quality shots and kept them to the outside.”

Zach Wilson led the offence through the weekend with seven goals and two assists in Saturday’s win over the Sabrecats and seven more goals with four assists in Sunday’s blowout — but he was joined by several teammates in surpassing the 10-point plateau over the two-game span.

Aidan McLean potted four goals and added three assists Saturday before tacking on six more goals with five assists Sunday. IzaakLoran netted a hat trick with a helper Saturday before besting the effort with four goals and an assist Sunday and Phillips followed up Saturday’s five-point performance with nine assists Sunday.

“We’ve been working hard on offence, doing a lot of taking advantage of opportunities, working the transition and trying to get those fast breaks up the floor,” said Sun Devils head coach Chris Loran. “We’re focused on trying to be ready for the tougher squads in the division so we want to make sure we keep the gas on at all times.”

While the wins give Medicine Hat some room to work with entering the final five games of the regular season, Phillips says they’ll need to use the energy gained from this weekend to start gathering momentum toward a lengthy playoff push.

“We need this momentum going into the end of the season,”said Phillips.”We’re trying to get as many goals and as much momentum as we can moving forward to keep our confidence up and keep the morale going. Hopefully we can carry it all the way through playoffs.”

The Sun Devils hit the road to Cranbrook to take on the Elite next Saturday before returning to the Kinplex for their final home game of the regular season June 16 against the High River Heat.

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