Jr. B Indians Continue Battle for Founders' Cup

The Founders' Cup is one of the most important national Major Lacrosse tournaments sponsored by the Canadian Lacrosse Association and has the broadest geographic representation of any national lacrosse championship held in Canada. Teams from five provinces and the First Nations Lacrosse Association are competing at Founder's in Calgary. The Founder's Cup (and its predecessor, the Castrol Cup) has been held on a continuous annual basis since 1964.

The Tournament features the Coquitlam Adanacs, Calgary Chill, Saskatchewan SWAT, Manitoba Blizzard, Akwesasne Indians, Seneca War Chiefs and the Host team, Calgary Mountaineers.

The seven-team Tournament is being played at the Max Bell Centre in Calgary, and started on Tuesday, August 18 and goes to Sunday, August 23.

On Tuesday, the Indians played the Manitoba Blizzard and won 15 to 5. On Wednesday, they played Saskatchewan SWAT, but results were not available at press time. You can follow the Akwesasne Indians Jr. B on the CLA Founder's Cup website and on the Jr. B Indians Lacrosse Facebook page.

Jr. B Indians Win First-Ever OJBLL Championship!

By Andy Gardner

It's official – The Akwesasne Indians will represent Ontario in the Canadian Lacrosse Association Founder's Cup, which was to have started Aug. 18 in Calgary, Alberta.

The team bested the Six Nation Rebels three games to one in a best-of-five series. The Rebels have won the Founder's Cup six times since 2007 and every one since 2011.

This is the first OJBLL Championship win for the Akwesasne Indians. Indians Coach Adam Thompson did not return a request for comment.

After beating Six Nations, the Indians held a boot drive on Aug. 15 at the Hogansburg four corners. They raised $11,154 to help pay for airfare and travel expenses.

"Thank you Akwesasne, Mohawk Tribal Police, DOT (Department of Transportation), parents and players. Good job," reads an Aug. 15 post on the team's Facebook page.

Akwesasne ended up needing four games to send Six Nations back home.

In game three, played Aug. 12 at Gaylord Powless Arena in Ohsweken, the Indians suffered what was only their second loss in the 2015 post-season.

After Akwesasne was leading 4-3 going into the second period, the Rebels fired in six key goals to only two from the Indians, jumping head of the visiting squad 9-7. The Rebels scored an insurance goal in the final frame and held Akwesasne to two for a 10-8 final score. The Rebels' Layne Smith scored a game-high four goals and one assist.

Seth Oakes led the Indians offense with two goals and two assists. Russ Oakes scored twice and assisted once. Skkylar Thomas tallied a goal and two helpers. Dalston Day, Zack Hopps and Adam Bomberry all scored once. Akwi David and Kaheriios Montour each assisted two plays.

The Indians sealed their fate as the 2015 Ontario Junior B lacrosse champs the following night at the Powless arena. David, Montour and Russ Oakes flew out of the gate, posting three goals in 5:41. Six Nations responded with markers from Travis Longboat at 8:34 in the first period and Jeremy Bomberry at 3:56 in the second.

Akwesasne's offense then re-awakened. Russ Oakes, Thomas and Bomberry scored three more in the last five minutes of the middle stanza, widening their lead to 6-2.

Sunday sparked the teams trading goals in the third period, adding three more to each side, ending in a 9-5 final score. The final two Indian goals came from Russ Oakes and Sunday.