Whitby Warriors clinch bye to Minto Cup Finals with win over Toronto Beaches

Maki Jenner (NLL TSN Contributor)

BRAMPTON, Ont. -- Goaltender Kaleb Martin made 45 saves and Brock Haley had a hat trick to help lead the Whitby Warriors over the Toronto Beaches 9-5 Wednesday night to earn a bye into the Minto Cup final.

In a rematch of the Ontario Junior Lacrosse League Finals played earlier this month, the Warriors and the Beaches met in the tournament’s final round-robin game.

The first period was a back-and-forth affair, but Clifford Gaston struck first for the Beaches.

Parker Pipher scored the Warriors’ first goal on the power play, but a transition goal from Jakson Raposo allowed the Beaches to regain the lead.

There was more back-and-forth scoring from Cam Acchione and Lucas Littlejohn before Adam Poitras had the hot hand for Whitby, scoring back-to-back goals to give his team their first lead of the night.

Raposo then netted his second goal of the game before five-on-five play essentially came to an end as 26 penalty minutes were awarded throughout the second period. David Anderson was ejected from the game after an altercation in the change box, leading Littlejohn to score his second on the power play.

The momentum quickly shifted in Whitby’s favour with Haley putting the Warriors up by two. Willem Firth gave the Toronto bench some hope with his first goal of the night, but the Whitby power play was dialed in and the Warriors had a 7-5 lead at the end of the second.

What seemed like a long scoring drought started the third period until Haley snuck one past Beaches goalie Will Johnston to give Whitby their biggest lead of the night. Haley then went airborne for his third of the night, giving the Warriors a 9-5 lead.

Toronto continued to claw back, but Whitby netminder Martin had the Beaches