A's, Bellies Confident Heading into Finals

A tightly-played season series had both the A's and New Westminster Salmonbellies feeling a Minto Cup berth is within their grasps. 

Talking on this week's Lacrosse Classified podcast on TSN 1040, both New Westminster Head Coach Rich Catton and Coquitlam Adanacs General Manager Scott Wortley feel their teams are confident and prepared to win what BCJALL Finals play-by-play man Jake Elliott calls the "rivalry older than dirt." 

Catton watched New West go through similar struggles as Victoria did this year in putting the ball past Christian Del Bianco on a regular basis as Assistant Coach. Coquitlam may have turned over much of their experienced d-core this year, but they have quickly meshed and saw reinforcements come in at the Trade Deadline. He knows this year that the biggest key is putting some goals past Christian Del Bianco and finding a groove offensively.

"Del Bianco is one of the best goalies in Canada, he's fantastic in net. Their defense is playing the same system they have the last few years, the pressure turn-down style defense and they've got some great defenders back there,"  Catton said. 

Coquitlam held the Shamrocks to several scoreless stretches in a three-game first-round sweep, but Catton feels his club is more than up to the challenge.

"The environment in our room is really strong. We've lost some of our D but replaced them with great kids," he said. "We brought in Tre [in the offseason] and he's back from the World's and we got guys like Jonesy [Ryan Jones] and Koz [Nathaniel Kozevnikov] in trades.

"The biggest thing is we're preaching our mental toughness. Not just leading up to games and resetting over and over and over during the games. We want to make sure they're mentally prepared for what's going to happen for the next two weeks," Catton said.

It's a sentiment shared by Wortley, who has been behind the scenes for much of the Adanacs' dominant run in BC, which includes making the BCJALL Finals for the last ten years and counting. He believes this team is one of the best Coquitlam's had in the last five years, bolstered by the additions of guys like Dylan Foulds and Ryland Rees. 

"On paper I would say it's a pretty good team and one of the best we've had in the last 5 years," Wortley said. "But you also look at the competition, I think we're on our way but  we've got a tough team in New West to go through.

"You look at the guys we brought in, Foulds is an 'A", Graydon Bradley was Captain, Ryland is an 'A' and Tyson Kirkness was a Captain in LangleyWe wanted some experience and to make sure we go into it addressing it. Those fifth-year guys can change the complexion of a series and we managed to get it done. It was one of the most successful deadlines I've done." 

Game 1 of the BCJALL Finals goes tonight at 8 PM at Queens Park Arena. Brad Challoner will have tonight's call live on PPV through PlayFullScreen: http://www.playfullscreen.com/player.php?mediaid=22350