Durham Tops Barrie

The Durham Turfdogs hosted the Blizzard in a Saturday afternoon contest to open the GM Centre for the 2014 season.

Durham was led my Mack O’Brien with 4 goals, Nick Diachenko with two goals and three helpers, and Scott Defrancesco with 2 goals and 2 assists.  Barrie was led by Caleb Wiles with 5 points (3+2) and Jonas Derks with six points (1+5).

The first quarter was close up until about 5 minutes left when the Blizzard took off on a five goal streak. Durham would have two goals in the first quarter, both of which came from Defrancesco. At the end of one Barrie led 6-2.

Into the second, Durham had enough of Barrie as they started what would be an 8 goal streak. Mack O’Brien would put in a hat trick within the second quarter, with two of the goals a part of Durham’s streak. Barrie trailed 11-8 at the end of the first half.

Starting off the second half early, O’Brien would go for the five hole and give a little bit more cushion onto the lead. Wiles not feeling it as he put in his third of the game to seal his hat trick, and cut the lead back down to 3. The Turfdogs ended the third quarter with a goal from Diachenako with just 37 seconds left to give themselves a nice 4 point lead heading into the final frame.

Starting off the fourth the Turfdogs would open with two goals before the Blizzard could do anything. An attempted comeback from Barrie wouldn’t prevail as they couldn’t get within less than 4.

Durham ended their home-opener on a high note with a final goal from Jordan Robertson, to top the Blizzard 18-13. Barrie now 0-2 heads home to take on the Lock Monsters for the second time this season.

Demons Come back to Top Cyclops

The Oshweken Demons edge by to take their home opener over the South Western Cyclops.

The Demons were led by Blue Hill with a nine point night from four goals and five assists, followed by Tom Mentour (5+2), Chris Attwood (4+3), and Wayne Vanevery (7) who all had seven point performances in their 21-19 win.

As for the Cyclops they were led by Ryan Campbell with three goals and a helper. Followed by Patrick McCorory with and Jimmy Purves who both put in three goals.

The SW Cyclopes would open up the scoring with back to back goals, but it wasn’t long before the Demons were on the board. At the end of one the Demons trailed 8-6, and into the second it wasn’t looking too good for the Demons.

The second quarter started with three quick goals from the visitors, as they started to pad their lead. At the end of the half the Demons were starting to get something going but still trailed 13-10.

It was until almost mid way through the third when Vanevery put in three straight, that would start the comeback for the Demons. His three goals would be the first of a four goal streak, which ended with the Demons up by 1. At the end of three it was tied at 15, after a late goal from Mike Burke to tie it back up.

Into the final 15 minutes of the game, the Demons decided it was time to run the show, but the Cyclopes not giving up the fight. Throughout the fourth it was goal for goal, until under five minutes to go when the Demons put in back-to-back goals. After gaining a two point lead, the Cyclopes would only come within one. Montour tossed in his final goal of the game with under a minute left to seal the win for the Demons.

Lock Monsters 2-0 after Opening Weekend

The Niagara Lock Monsters capped off a double header weekend with a second straight win on Sunday. After topping the Barrie Blizzard 16-8 on Saturday afternoon, they showed no signs of fatigue defeating the Durham Turfdogs 14- 4.

Andrew Potter led the Lock Monsters on offence with a 6 point performance with two goals and four assists. Meanwhile, between the pipes, Connor Danko shut out the Turfdogs throughout the entire third quarter and allowed only a single goal in the fourth sealing the Niagara victory.

The first quarter opened up with back-to-back goals from Niagara, with one from rookie Tyler Carvalho and the other from Andrew Potter. Durham’s Dylan Goddard would get one by Danko to end the first with a score of 2-1.
Into the second, the Turfdogs would put in a pair of goals, scored by Nick Diachenko and Goddard to take the lead for the first time. Niagara would answer with a goal of their own by Sean Gillies, which would end the first half all tied up at 3.

The Niagara Lock Monster’s would take the lead back just 33 seconds into the second half with a goal from Captain Brad Favero. Favero’s goal was the first of nine for Niagara in the third quarter alone. Danko had a flawless third quarter for the second straight game as Durham was unable to capitalize on anything throughout the quarter.

The Turfdogs would end their drought in the fourth with a goal from Scott Defrancesco. But, Niagara would counter with goals by Jordan Daradick and Andy Tober. Defrancesco alongside Dylan Goddard led all Turdogs with two points each in the game.

Box Score available at canadianlacrosse.com
Week 2 sees Durham host the Barrie Blizzard on Saturday, February 8 at 2 p.m. at the GM Centre. That evening, the Ohsweken Demons open the season against the SouthWest Cyclops at Iroquois Lacrosse Areana beginning at 8 p.m. On Sunday, February 9, Niagara travels to Barrie to take on the Blizzard at 2 p.m. at the Barrie Molson Centre. 

Niagara Comes Back to Win Home Opener

The Niagara Lock Monsters kicked off their season with an 16-8 win over the Barrie Blizzard in a Saturday afternoon match up at Seymour Hannah Arena.

In the first quarter, the Blizzard would take control by scoring the opening goal as Geoff McNulty found the back of the net, assisted by Caleb Wiles and Spencer Janes.  It would take Niagara almost ten minutes to get on the board as Corey Fowler took off to put one in unassisted and tie the game at 1.  Barely 20 seconds later, the Blizzard answered Fowler’s goal to start a three goal streak.  Jon Arnold of the Lock Monster’s would toss in a pair of goals to end the first with Barrie leading 4-3.

Barrie opened the scoring in the second quarter with a quick goal by Tyler Gibbons.  From there, Niagara would go on a solid goal streak that would stretch from the second quarter and into the third. The streak would include a hat trick from Andrew Potter; two of the three goals from Potter would come on penalty shots.

Throughout the third quarter, frustrations began to come out from both sides with Barrie unable to capitalize on their power play opportunities.  Niagara shut out Barrie in the third quarter and led 14-5 going into the final frame.

In the fourth, Barrie’s Tyler Gibbons found the back of the net and put an end to the streak for Niagara. Niagara’s Travis Gibbons would put in his second of the game to answer, and later added third to seal a hat trick.  In the end, three goals in the fourth quarter wasn’t enough for Barrie to come back and Niagara went on to a 16-8 victory.

Box Score available here

Niagara’s next game comes today at 2 p.m. as they take on the Durham Turfdogs at Seymour Hannah Arena.

Bell Lets Talk

There's a couple hours left of "Bell Let's Talk" Day 2014..

It's amazing to see how many people are starting to recognize how important your mental health is. There are so many people that battle with mental illness every day, and that have been battling with it every day for years. There are some that lose the battle, and are no longer with us other than the memories they leave us with... and then there are those that fight and over come their inner demons.

I spent so much time hating myself and trying to make myself perfect. I tried to make myself perfect due to not thinking that I was good enough... mean while I was and I am. All of the time that I spent hating myself and listening to the voices in my head, I look back at as the lost years. There are so many things that I could have done and so many things I could have accomplished if I wasn't so focused on the voices in my head telling me that I couldn't.

I didn't talk about it. I didn't tell people about it. The fear of being judged and looked down on was worse than the amount of pressure the voices in my put on me. You couldn't see the symptoms ... for all I knew people would say that it's for attention. (sure some still did) But that's why those people aren't here anymore. That's why those people aren't in my life.

To see how many people have come to realize that Mental Illness is in fact an Illness and needs to be recognized as such is amazing. To see that there are all of these people to support those that are going through what I went through, is an incredible feeling.

There are those that will always believe it's nothing ... that it's a choice you make rather than a chemical imbalance, but the amount of people that are supportive and willing to help break the stigma will out number them.

For those that are fighting with a mental illness or in recovery fighting for their lives back. You're not alone. There are people that have been there and made it through, and there are those that are willing to listen. There are good days and there are bad days, but you're never alone.
The proof of that... There have been over 100 million mentions of Bell Lets Talk ... meaning there has been over 5 million dollars raised for Mental Health Research.

Thank you to those that tweeted with #BellLetsTalk or donated any amount of money, or even turned off their imessage and decided to text instead. Thank you for showing those that are currently battling with Mental Illness and those that have, that they are not alone.

Time

Time goes by really quickly and I think that's something that we don't realize. We don't realize that everyday there is so many things that we could be doing to get closer to our goals and who we want to be. Every day there is opportunity to change your life. People think that weeks and months are a long way away, but they aren't. 24 hours goes by pretty quickly when you think about it ... 7 days even faster... I don't even want to think about how quickly a year passes.

There are so many things that you hope to do and wish to do in your lifetime, yet you spend so much time wasting away doing things that you hate. Working a job that makes you miserable and being with people that don't bring out the best in you. 

Every once in a while, I think it's nice to stop from your routine and stop from being busy and just relax. Take a walk through the snow or take a walk in the rain and embrace your surroundings. Enjoy the blue sky or the rain drops hitting your skin. Listen to the way the snow crunches under your feet and just take a breather. Let the world slow down and let your brain take a break from the busyness of your life.
Sometimes it's nice to sit in a coffee shop alone and just watch the people around you. Make up stories about what they do and where they're from. What led them to this moment right now. Heck even start a random conversation.. you never know who you're going to meet or how they're going to effect your life.

Time is something that we take for granted. We think that there is so much time in the world and we put everything off and we keep putting things off and eventually we run out of time. Eventually we end up with this list of things that we've always wanted to and never took the time to do. We make up excuses about how busy we are and that we don't have the time. Yet our lives are the longest thing that we have, so why not make the most of them?

I think the best thing that anyone can do for themselves is to not only have a good relationship with themselves and love themselves for everything that they are... but to embrace and enjoy the things around them. Embrace the small things in life... because even if you see them everyday, you're not really seeing them until you make the world slow down and actually look. 

Life Update

Haven't posted one of these on here .. and since I haven't posted in a while I figured I may as well.
It's crazy to think about how many things I had planned by now... and how many of them changed. It's crazy to see how one thing, one event can change so many things in your life. But the craziest part is probably how that one event can seem like everything is falling apart ... but it's actually the start of a whole new thing thats better than you could imagine.
Almost two years ago things happened in my life that I thought i wouldn't get through. I thought it was the end of the world and everything changed. Everything did change, but that was the only thing i was right about. They didn't change for the worse and I wasn't stuck. It felt like I was at the time, and sometimes it still feels that way. But there are ways out... There will be hard times no matter who you are or what your goals are. It's being able to get through those times that make you who you are get you that much closer to where you want to be.
Yeah I work non-stop and some of the jobs aren't really what I want to do... but i'm 21, and there are still so many opportunities coming my way. I get feedback from people that i've known my entire life and from people that i've met within the past couple of years and it's insane to see how much they follow the things that i've been doing. Graduating college and starting my career at 21 was scary... it was so scary that I went back to school for something else for no reason at all. Until I realized that it was okay to be scared... because it is. It's okay to get scared of the future... because you don't know what it holds for you. But it's not okay to run from it or hide from it. Sometimes you need to face the fear head on and overcome it.
I overcame the fear of the future and the fear of not knowing, and it's crazy to think of how many things that i've accomplished already.
Sometimes I wonder where I would be if things had happened differently... but then I realize that i'm glad they happened the way that they did. I stopped worrying about relationships and started putting myself first, and sometimes thats exactly what you need to do. I cut out all of the people that had negative thoughts towards my goals... and it will be those people that are kicking themselves in the butt when I make it.
Life is crazy, it's insane, and it's unpredictable ... There are times when it gets hard and there are times when you're on top of the world. But in the end it's all worth it. It's not about how many commas are on your paycheck or how much is in your bank account ... what matters is waking up every morning and realizing that you love your life and you love your job. Why spend hours upon hours working at something that doesn't make you happy... when you could be spending those hours working toward a goal that will give you the feeling of accomplishment and success.
Yes I still live with my parents and I'm still single and I work several different jobs ... but they're all building up to something to bigger. And just because i'm here right now, doesn't mean i always will be. I'm happy where I am right now... but that doesn't mean I don't want more.