The Sudbury Rockhounds' bookend teams earned bragging rights at the Ontario Lacrosse Festival staged the past few weeks in Whitby.

In the eldest of the divisions, coach Mike Miron and company made it three straight provincial crowns, capping off a 4-0-1 tournament with a 4-3 win over the Orangeville Northmen in the championship affair.

Trailing 2-1 entering the third period of play, the Rockhounds scored three unanswered goals to open the third (courtesy of Ben Harris, Jacob Barney and Kai D'Amour) before surrendering one to make it close in the final minute of play.

Jacob Hickerson had scored in the first for Sudbury.

"I knew that we could get it done again," said 18 year-old Cody Wahl, one of a good handful of players who have been part of all three championship teams.

"We're just a family," added the graduate of Ecole secondaire Hanmer, preparing for his second year in the HVAC program at Cambrian College. "We have such a strong brotherhood and connection with each other and the rest all comes with it."

The U22 Rockhounds opened round robin play with a tie (3-3 vs the Newmarket Redbirds) before slipping past both the Peterborough Lakers (8-5) and the West Grey Rampage (3-2).

The semi-final encounter was surprisingly lopsided as the Simcoe Timberwolves broke the ice but never scored again, with Sudbury posting a 6-1 win on goals from Alex Hachez and Daniel Czerwinski (two goals each), with Xavier Esquimaux-Osawamick and Cody Wahl adding solo tallies.

Like most teams at the age and level, the Rockhounds run full out lines of offensive and defensive units, changing on the fly based on ball possession - with Wahl and company entrusted with putting the ball in the net.

"As much as defense always wins championships, I like to help us get goals to make that happen," noted the young man who had only one previous year of rep lacrosse experience before hooking up with the U22 Rockhounds.

"With the trust that me and the other guys on offense have for our defense, we know that we can get it done. We have faith in them and they have faith in us."

Rounding out the 2024 Sudbury U22 roster are Austin Arlt, Andrew Whitehouse, Ashton Eadie, Keegan Esquimaux-Osawamick, Mason Lachance, Carter Balkwill, Blake Ramalho, Max Vendette, Caden McDonald, Noah Larcher and goaltenders Evan Liscoumb and Mason Robertson.

For as much as winning has become second nature for the above-noted squad, the same could not be said for a Sudbury U9 Rockhounds team which was saddled with six straight losses in tournament play (earlier this year) before earning a tie and a win last month versus a Huntsville team in a pair of friendlies in preparation for the all-Ontario showdown.

Not that any of this came as a shock to head coach Steve Lauzon, a man who played the game back in the seventies and has coached both rep lacrosse as well as the Laurentian varsity field team at various times.

“Of the 12 bodies that we started with in June, seven had never played lacrosse at all until this year – and the other five had played soft lacrosse of U7,” he stated. Hard to be too upset then with a 5-1 showing in Division E provincials action, their run of victories stopped by the eventual gold medal winning Simcoe Timberwolves in the quarter-finals.

Truth be told, the all-Ontario tournament was the first time all year that the Rockhounds would meet opponents tiered at their level (the Huntsville team came to Sudbury in part because their top three players were off at a U11 event and the coach realized this was a great opportunity to develop his lesser talent).

“I know from experience that you have to challenge the players – but you also have to have expectations that are realistic when going to tournaments,” said Lauzon. “Then when you go to provincials and play similar caliber, well, I knew that we could do well.”

Jumping aboard in coaching the team on which his grandson played, with his own children (Kurtis and Kassandra) also part of the coaching staff, Lauzon chuckled when asked about the keys to those early season practices with such an inexperienced team.

"You have to go right back to the basics and start from scratch: trapping the ball, scooping the ball, craddling the ball - and then passing and shooting," he said. "I would review and repeat and practice that at the start of every practice."

"Lacrosse is a game of possession," Lauzon continued. "If you don't have the ball, you don't have a chance. We had to get to loose balls and we had to know how to pick up loose balls."

Apparently they learned as the U9 Rockhounds blasted their way through their three-team pool, sweeping aside both the Tyendinaga Thunderbirds (7-4 and 3-1) and the Kahnawake Mohawks (9-6 and 12-1) before meeting up with a well-matched Pelham Raiders team in their first playoff cross-over game.

The back and forth affair was a classic as the young Hounds led 3-2 after the first and 5-4 after two periods of play. Five minutes into the third, however, Pelham were back on top, clinging to a 6-5 lead.

Despite running with a roster of just 11 players, facing teams that carried typically far more than that, the Sudbury crew dug deep, knotting the game at 6-6 when Taylin Johnson completed her hat trick, setting the stage for a game-winning goal from Troy Michelutti a few minutes later.

A handful of key saves from netminder Jack Lamoureux in the final five minutes allowed Michelutti's second of the game to stand, with Grayson Antonio matching that effort with two goals of his own.

"We played a box plus one so that we had pressure on the ball but could still rest four players defensively," explained Lauzon. "Once we recovered the ball, we could run with it and create some offense."

Unfortunately the quarter-finals matched Sudbury against an impressive Simcoe side. Down by a single goal heading to the final frame (4-3), the Rockhounds simply ran out of gas, disappointed perhaps, but deservedly proud.

Also part of the U9 Rockhounds team were Amilia Rancourt, Hudson Lauzon, Jack Gainer, Liam Timony, Noah Legault, Nolan Rancourt and Pierce Rainville.

Both the U13 Rockhounds and U11 Rockhounds hit the win column in pool play - just not enough to earn a ticket through to the playoff round. The former opened with a 6-0 whitewashing of the Wallaceburg Griffins before losing to both the Gloucester Griffins (7-5) and the Barrie Bombers (5-2).

The younger U11 crew managed to leave Whitby on a winning note, trimming the Kitchener Kodiaks 7-5 after falling short against the Lincoln Redcoats (6-4) and the Hunstville Hawks (13-5).

And while the U15 Rockhounds went 0-3, the fact remains that their total goal difference was just minus four following setbacks at the hands of the Kitchener Kodiaks (4-3), the Six Nations Chiefs (6-5) and the Burlington Blaze (8-6).