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Orangeville lacrosse goalie wins Junior B Founders Cup

September 5, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

An Orangeville Lacrosse player achieved the top goal in Canadian Junior B Lacrosse when he and his team, the Elora Mohawks, won the 2024 Founders Cup during a national competition in Hamilton.

The tournament ran from Aug. 19 to 25 and featured the best nine Junior B teams in the country.

Jesse Morrison, a 17-year-old goalie for the Elora Mohawks and an Orangeville resident, played in four of the five tournament games leading up to the championship win.

Elora won the title with a 10-1 win over host Hamilton Bengals team at the Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena. Jessie was the starting goalie in the final game.

The Elora team had an outstanding season with 27 straight wins. They went on to sweep the Ontario Conference with three straight wins in the best-of-five final over the Kahnawake Hunters on Aug. 11.

Jessie wanted to try out for the Orangeville Junior B Northmen, however, the Orangeville team already had two goalies. All his Junior rights still belonged to the Junior A Northmen.

Still wanting to play the sport at a higher level, Jesse asked the Northmen for a one-year release, which would allow him to play for another team. The Northmen organization was helpful in making this happen.

Jesse went to the Junior B Mimico Mountaineers.

Later in the season, it was obvious, the Mountaineers were not going to be a contender this season.

“I did around half a season right before the playoffs,” Jesse explained. “We lost to Burlington by one goal. After that, the GM asked if I wanted to be traded to Elora on my Junior B card.”

The trade went through on June 9.

The Mohawks were a strong team this season, but will wanted to improve their goaltending. They had been watching Jesse’s success and had their eye on him.

“It was a pretty confident group,” Jesse said of joining the team and knowing they were a strong club. Going into the Founders Cup he said, was a matter of being ready to compete. “It was a lot of preparation – getting practices in. For me as a goalie, getting lots of reps is key, and it boosted my confidence.”

Getting reps is being in goal and taking lots of shots during practice.

The Mohawks were undefeated in the Founders Cup competition.

“It was really amazing to see the level we went to in that Founders Cup,” Jessie said. “I was little nervous but I definitely took it as a challenge. I am one of those goalies who can rise to the occasion on a great challenge, so when I had that challenge come up I thought to myself, I need to do this and I want to do this, and took it as an honour for sure. It was definitely a bit of an advantage for them (Hamilton Bengals) on their home floor. They got booted out during the playoffs, but because they were hosting they had a bye-in to the Founders Cup. They were very good, very confident, and very hardworking team.”

The final 10-1 score meant the Mohawks put out a huge defensive effort. They knew partway through the game they had clinched the title.

“The room before the game was much different, there wasn’t as much joking around,” Jesse said. “For some of them, this was their last time being an Elora Mohawk so they wanted to go out on top. Some of them have played their entire life here and dedicated their time to this organization. For them to win the Founders Cup, it was definitely a privilege.”

Next season, Jesse plans to return to Orangeville and try out for the Junior A Northmen. 

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