The U9 Niagara Thunderhawks lacrosse team competed in the Jack Bionda Shootout Tournament in Huntsville last weekend.
They faced tough opposition, but after returning home, on Tuesday night the Thunderhawks beat Six Nations 7-6 and earned a berth in their zone championship, which is being played in NOTL this weekend.
At the weekend tourney, the players worked hard and the highlight came during a game against the hometown team, the Huntsville Hawks.
Niagara lost 9-8 when the Hawks scored the winner with two minutes left in the game.
Head coach Jared Hope noted, “The scoreboard doesn’t reflect how tight all of our games were this past weekend. Our players made each of our opponents work extremely hard for those wins.”
In their other games, Niagara lost 8-3 to the Lincoln Redcoats and 9-2 to the Orillia Kings.
The tournament organizers awarded Colton Ferguson, Noah Werner and Brock Friesen player of the game honours while TJ Gauld, Auston Cwiertniewski and Noah Sticca each won the Hardest Worker Award.
Team manager Allison Cwiertniewski said the players all had a great weekend and are looking forward to the zone championships this weekend in front of a hometown crowd.
“The Zone 9 finals for our division will be at the Meridian Credit Union Arena in Virgil this Saturday at 11 a.m.,” Cwiertniewski said.