The Orangeville Northmen Novice 3 team traveled to Whitby recently to play in the Ontario Lacrosse Championships.

The boys got off to a slow start Friday, losing 9 - 3 to a very talented Guelph team. The Northmen came out more determined in their second game of the day and won 9 - 3 over Midland. On Saturday, their next game against Wallaceburg would decide if they finished in the top two in the round robin and moved on or went home.

The team came out eager and played a very hard-hitting defensive game to take a 6 - 4 victory and move on in the tournament.

From this point on it was win or go home. Saturday night would see the Northmen play a very gritty Mississauga team who gave them quite a scare, but the Northmen prevailed 8 - 7 to stay alive. Sunday would be a new experience for half of this team who had never played a game at the Ontario Lacrosse Festival's main head quarters Iroquois Park in Whitby.

The Northmen arrived at the rink Sunday to find out that they had to play Guelph again in order to move on to the gold medal game. This would turn out to be a much different game than the first time they met on Friday.

The Northmen were challenged by their coaches to prove how much they wanted to play for gold and the team came out full steam ahead, took the lead and never looked back as they went on to a 6 - 2 victory and a birth in the gold medal game Sunday night.

The gold medal game would see the Northmen play Nepean, a team they had never seen or heard of before. Nepean came out strong and got out to a 5 - 1 lead, but the Northmen never gave up and battled back to take a 6 - 5 lead in the third period.

Then the Northmen were assessed some untimely penalties late in the third and Nepean managed to get two goals and restore their lead.

Despite the Northmen's best efforts and a last second shot on goal, they couldn't tie the game and had to settle for the silver medal, falling 7 - 6. Congratulations go out to Noah Dobrzanski, Cameron O'Gorman, Devon Maclean, Mark Strudwick, Evan Manzke, Jackson Hand, Hunter Randall, Chase Echlin, Blake MacDonald, Cian Davies, Mathew Wark, Tristan Isaac, and Connor Carson.