Peterborough Jr. C Lakers Capture Central Division Championship

By Scott Arnold

The Peterborough Jr. C Lakers are Central Division champions after defeating the Whitby Warriors 8-7 on Friday night to win the best-of-five series in four games.

The peterborough jr. c Lakers won the central division championship friday night in whitby. they will now await the winner of the Kahnawake-Cornwall series to learn their semifinal opponent (photo courtesy of the jr. c lakers)

Peterborough earned the road victory at the McKinney Centre to claim the Central Division title and advance to the Ontario Junior C Lacrosse League Meredith Cup semifinals.

The Lakers will face the winner of the series between the Kahnawake Hunters and Cornwall Celtics. Cornwall currently leads that best-of-five matchup 2-1, with Game 4 scheduled for Monday.

The other Meredith Cup semifinal will feature the Six Nations Stealth and the Whitby Warriors. Although Whitby fell to Peterborough in the Central Division Final, the Warriors earned the league's wild card berth as the highest-ranked unsuccessful division finalist from the division with the strongest overall regular season winning percentage.

Friday's game was another tightly contested battle between the longtime rivals. Whitby held a 4-3 lead after the opening period before the Lakers responded with three goals in the second to take a 6-6 tie into the third. Logan Giroux gave Peterborough the lead early in the final period before Ryder Perry scored the game-winning power-play goal with 2:26 remaining.

Jordan Garfat scored twice for the Lakers, while Braxtin Howard added a goal and an assist. Ryder Perry, Kennen Withers, Hayden Heigh, Owen Thake and Logan Giroux also found the back of the net.

Heigh finished with two assists, while Quinn Jacobs recorded two assists. Charlie Evans, Charlie Donald, Kyson Campbell, Kennen Withers and Ryder Evans each added an assist.

With the Central Division title secured, the Lakers will now await the winner of the Kahnawake-Cornwall series to learn their semifinal opponent.

Scott Arnold is a Journalist and Content Creator at PTBOCanada Media Inc

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