Sports

Junior A Northmen lose by a single goal in Minto Cup final

August 28, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

They had a stellar season, claiming the Ontario Junior A Lacrosse League championship; however, the top national prize – the Minto Cup – just wasn’t in the cards for the Orangeville Junior A Northmen this year.

The final Minto Cup game was played at the Meridan Centre in St. Catharines on Friday, Aug. 22, and ended with an 11-10 win for the Coquitlam Adanacs.

The Northmen played the Adanacs in their first game of the tournament and won that game 12-5.

The two teams were the last squads standing in the Minto Cup tournament and were scheduled to play a best-of-three game series to see who would be this year’s champion.

Game One got underway on Thursday, Aug. 21.

It was a close game going into the third period with the Adanacs having a 3-2 lead with one period left to play.

Coquitlam scored three goals in the third period before the Northmen could respond.

The Orangeville team closed the gap to a 6-5 game, but a final Adanacs goal gave the Coquitlam team a 7-5 win.

The teams were back in the arena the following night, and the Northmen needed the win to keep the series alive.

Coquitlam had a 3-1 win at the end of the first period.

Owen Rahn scored the only Orangeville first-period goal.

The Northmen blasted into the second period, scoring four times in the first eleven minutes to take a 5-3 lead at the midway mark in the period.

Coquitlam scored two to tie it up. Both teams scored late in the period to make it a 6-6 game with one period left to go.

The Northmen’s second-period goals came from Max Kruger, Vince Onofrio, Dylan Sanderson, Trey Deere, and Owen Rahn.

In the third period, Max Kruger scored early to give the Northmen a one-goal lead. That was followed by a goal from Deere just over two minutes later.  

Dylan Sanderson scored to give the Northmen a 9-7 lead with just over 14 minutes remaining.

It was a sudden burst of scoring over two minutes that put Coquitlam back in the lead. The Adanacs scored four quick goals to take an 11-9 game with four minutes left on the clock.

Dylan Sanderson scored the final Northmen goal of the season with 3:41 left on the clock, but that’s all the Northmen could do for the night, and they had to settle for an 11-10 loss.

The Junior A Northmen provided fans with a lot of exciting games this season.

The Northmen have won the provincial Iroquois trophy nine times since 2000.

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