{"id":32960,"date":"2023-04-27T19:27:47","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T23:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=32960"},"modified":"2023-05-04T19:32:06","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T23:32:06","slug":"pennsylvanias-kiski-prep-cougars-hand-sac-saints-their-first-lacrosse-loss-of-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/pennsylvanias-kiski-prep-cougars-hand-sac-saints-their-first-lacrosse-loss-of-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania\u2019s Kiski Prep Cougars hand SAC Saints their first lacrosse loss of 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kiski Prep Cougars fired five unanswered goals in the fourth quarter en-route to a 13-7 win over St. Andrew\u2019s College at Yuill Field in exhibition lacrosse action on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the Saints\u2019 first loss of the season after accruing an 8-0-1 exhibition record, including two wins versus Eastview and Aurora and a tie versus St. Mary\u2019s during Wednesday\u2019s tripleheader on their home turf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday\u2019s tilt with Kiski \u2014 the fifth-ranked lacrosse team in Pennsylvania \u2013 was played in miserable April conditions, but St. Andrew\u2019s College Head Coach Joe Commisso wasn\u2019t blaming the weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had snowy days to play in so far this season and we won the CISAA championship in 2022 in sideways rain. Some would have described it as an epic rainstorm versus St. Mike\u2019s. We have a good vibe in the rain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAC proved themselves to be a good inclement weather team again on Saturday by battling the Pennsylvania powerhouse to a 7-7 draw after three quarters of play. However, Kiski\u2019s lightning-fast offence created numerous scoring opportunities in the fourth quarter and the Cougars put the game away with five consecutive goals that revealed their marksman-like accuracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Commisso confirmed the caliber of players suited up for the contingent from Saltsburg, PA: \u201cKiski had seven DI commits on the field today.  We ran with them for three quarters and it was tied heading into the fourth.  Our goaltender Campbell Ellis kept us in the game and made some great saves versus the Cougars. Unfortunately, Kiski capitalized on our mistakes in the midfield during the fourth quarter and made the most of their opportunities.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undaunted by the team\u2019s first loss of the season, the veteran SAC Head Coach extolled the performances of his top performers versus the visitors from Saltsburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBrendan Wright and Anselmo Rego had big offensive games for us this afternoon. Nicolas Belmonte had a great game, too, as did Ryan Brown who was playing with great energy after being selected in the first round of the OHL Draft the night before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown\u2014a 5\u20199\u201d, 151-pound left winger from the York-Simcoe Express and Grade 10 student at SAC\u2014was drafted 17th overall by the Sarnia Sting on Friday night.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Commisso praised his four bright lights on offence and in the midfield, he reserved his greatest praise for sophomore netminder Campbell Ellis who \u201cplayed out his mind in the first three quarters today. He\u2019s only in Grade 10, but he is a NCAA D1-calibre lacrosse goalie.  Campbell would be the third SAC goalie in a row to go D1.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday\u2019s game result was a marked contrast to the Saints\u2019 recent pre-season success, including an impressive showing in Wednesday\u2019s tripleheader on home turf against Central Ontario competition.  SAC opened \u201cAn Afternoon of Lacrosse in Aurora\u201d with a 10-1 win over Eastview (Barrie), battled to a 5-5 tie with St. Mary\u2019s (Owen Sound), and finished the demanding day with a 10-0 victory over Aurora HS Eagles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against their crosstown competition, the Saints jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead seven minutes into their third game of the day and the Eagles called a timeout to stem the White Tide. SAC increased its lead to 4-0 by the end of the first quarter and led 6-0 at half-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Saints built their lead to 8-0 heading into the final quarter of play and netted two more fourth quarter goals to establish their margin of victory against the YRAA Eagles\u2019 squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Commisso felt the Saints\u2019 depth contributed mightily to their wins over Eastview and Aurora and their draw with St. Mary\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe used our depth and substituted freely to manage the three games.  We were well-prepared for the games today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commisso singled out the performances of three Saints during Wednesday\u2019s tripleheader: \u201cBrendan Wright, Nic Belmonte, and Campbell Ellis were our top players in the three games. They were outstanding against the St. Mary\u2019s Mustangs, a Top 5 OFSAA team coached by a former NLL player. Wright, Belmonte, and Ellis are all DI prospects and their play showed that this afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lacrosse Saints are happy to announce that Kai Erkkila has committed to play for the NCAA Division 1 Marist College Red Foxes in Poughkeepsie, New York in September 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Saints look to defend their 2022 CISAA championship starting in May with home-and-away games versus St. Michael\u2019s College, Upper Canada College, and Crestwood. The CISAA playoffs commence May 24 and the championship game is scheduled for May 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAC\u2019s next exhibition games are in Michigan on May 5 and 6 against Birmingham and Detroit Jesuit, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jim Stewart<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kiski Prep Cougars fired five unanswered goals in the fourth quarter en-route to a 13-7 win over St. Andrew\u2019s College at Yuill Field in exhibition lacrosse action on Saturday afternoon. It was the Saints\u2019 first loss of the season after accruing an 8-0-1 exhibition record, including two wins versus Eastview and Aurora and a tie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8zC","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 10:50:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}