NORTH BAY, Ont -- Five different players scored as the McGill Redmen opened defence of their Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association championship with an 8-3 road victory over the Nipissing Lakers 8-3 at Veteran's Field, Saturday,

Bus legs after an eight-hour ride from Montreal and McGill's sloppy play on a grass field in the first half allowed the underdog Lakers to hold a surprisng 2-1 lead at halftime. The Redmen offence finally got untracked and scored seven goals in the second half. 

McGill's defence stymied the Lakers all night, anchored by defencemen Brad Hofmann, Paul Rougeau and Durham Abric. Goalie William Waesche, who only allowed three goals, collected the victory between the pipes.
 
Senior Spencer Bromley, the team's leading scorer last year, potted two goals and added two assists. Also scoring twice apiece was junior attackman Goose Bolton and freshmen Liam MacDonald of North Vancouver, B.C.

Rounding out the scoring was veteran Rhys Burnell and rookie Ian Macleod of Bradenton, Fla. 
 
"We made a lot of mistakes on offence, as we tried to integrate multiple freshmen midfielders and we did a poor job of getting good shots, which resulted in a low-scoring first half," said head coach Tim Murdoch. "We also had way too many penalties (11) but things began to mesh later in the game once we calmed down at halftime."

The Redmen only managed six shots on goal in the first half out of 19 chances but improved to 13 shots on goal out of 18 attempts in the second half.

"We scored the last five goals of the game and our defence kept them scoreless for the final 31 minutes," added Murdoch.
 
Both teams were slated to only have 15 hours before a rematch at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, in a rare two-game weekend against the same opponent. 

Scoring by quarters:
McGill 0-1-3-4 -- 8
Nipissing: 1-1-1-0 -- 3
 
LINK TO COMPLETE BOXSCORE

SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
McGill Sports Info Office
(514) 398-7012