The St. Albert Senior Miners finished the regular season Friday night and enter the playoffs with a perfect record of 16-0.
“I don’t think anyone on the team envisioned an undefeated season,” said Sr. Miners’ head coach Vay Diep. “It wasn’t like that. We set goals we wanted to reach at the beginning of this year and focused on them. The team came out and gave everything every practice and every game to complete those goals. Sixteen-zero is a byproduct of that.”
The Sr. Miners met the Spruce Grove Slash on Friday night and absolutely ran them over with a score of 20-9. The Slash seemed unprepared for the Sr. Miners in the first and found themselves on their heels early in the game.
“We play a high pressure, aggressive defence,” said Diep. “If you’ve never seen a lacrosse game and are coming to see us, be sure to watch that. It’s exciting lacrosse.”
In the second and third the Slash found their legs and started to be competitive but they could not overcome the pressure and were unable to win a period. The Sr. Miners never let up and kept scoring until the final whistle.
The teams’ overwhelming offensive pressure has been there for them all season long and will be counted on in the playoffs.
“Watch number 44, Graedon Cornfield, when he gets possession,” said Diep. “He had 50 goals in 15 games this season. It’s something else.”
The team lost in the provincial finals two years ago and was eliminated in last year’s semifinals. It was a disappointing finish for such a talented team. Diep decided that something had to change.
“This process that we went through, it started last year,” said Diep. “We looked at the things we were doing and identified problems we had as a team. The big problem we had was with our depth. It wasn’t enough and the injuries were costing us. We needed to be more committed, more competitive, and we needed more depth.”
Diep set the team three goals in stages to commit to at the start of the season.
“First, we have to secure home floor advantage in the playoffs. With this season we’ve done that,” said Diep. “Second, we have to win provincials. This team is more than capable of doing that. Third, we want to compete at nationals. Every player on our team is focused on these goals.”
The St. Albert Sr. Miners play the first game of the post-season Wednesday night at Servus Credit Union Place. The game starts at 8 p.m.
The Sr. Miners play their second playoff game Friday night in the same stadium at 8 p.m.
The playoff match ups were unknown at press time.
