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6 Nations Chiefs vs. peterborough lakers Box Lacrosse Photo credit: Larry Palumbo
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Big Lacrosse Brawl: This Is Not Normal

The Oakville Rock took on the Brooklin Redmen on July 24, 2013 in Senior A Major Series Lacrosse action, and the game erupted into a pretty serious brawl, where both teams left their benches after one of the Oakville players (Brendon Niesink) went over to the Brooklin bench and started throwing punches.

Main Photo Credit: Larry Palumbo

The announcer makes sure to note that this is not a normal occurrence, and I believe him when he says he hasn’t seen anything like this in years.

https://youtu.be/KQydaePVQoQ

One thing that stands out to me is the announcer stating that refs have been giving out more minor penalties this season, trying to avoid major penalties, where players are also ejected from the game. I can’t say that this has anything to do with the above fight, but it is interesting on its own, and in the video, so I thought I’d mention it.

From the looks of things, this game simply spiraled out of control when one player decided to take things up a notch. It’s not normal for this level, but it does happen.

Brooklin won the game 11-7. Oakvile was up 7-6 after two periods, but a 5-0 third gave Brooklin the come from behind win. All in all, 12 players were given game misconduct penalties for this fight, and another that occurred 9 seconds later. Oakville finished the game with 128 penalty minutes on 23 penalties to Brooklin’s 91 minutes on 18 penalties. Barn burner!

Shawn Williams had two goals and five assists for Brooklin, while Gavin Prout provided an additional five helpers for the Redmen. Oakville was led by Kyle Davis and Dylan Gilbert’s four points each. Andrew Smistad led all players with an astounding 42 minutes in penalties.

Is there any way to stop this kind of stuff from happening? I can get behind fighting at some levels, but never on this one. Sure, it’s rare, but that it happens at all still concerns me. I hope Chris Fox is proud of me. I tried to be as nonjudgmental and prejudiced on this one as possible.