Whitby Warriors earn spot in Minto Cup final in Brampton

The Whitby Warriors have booked their ticket into the 2022 Minto Cup Junior ‘A’ Lacrosse Championship final with a 9-5 win Wednesday night over Toronto Beaches.

After two squeakers to start the tournament Whitby brought out all the firepower for Ontario rival Toronto, outscoring them in every period to earn the win and the number one seed.

Both clubs had already qualified for the playoffs with the winner grabbing a bye into the best-of-three final. Toronto will have to get through the St. Albert Miners in tonight’s sudden death semi-final to get a re-match with Whitby. The Miners qualified last night by beating the Victoria Shamrocks 10-8 in a battle of 0-2 clubs.

Brock Haley scored three times Wednesday for the Warriors – including the only two goals in the third to put the game away, with final snipe scored while airborne – with Parker Pipher, Lucas Littlejohn and Adam Poitras adding a pair of goals each.

Kaleb Martin made 45 saves for the winners.

Poitras led all tournament scorers with ten goals in the round-robin, with Haley, the OJLL’s leading scorer this season with 74 goals in just 16 games, chipping in with seven.

The Minto Cup final kicks off Saturday at 7 p.m. with Game 2 scheduled for Sunday and the third game – if necessary – Monday night.

All games are being played at the CAA Centre in Brampton.