Adanac Alumni Help Washington Stealth earn First Win

The Washington Stealth played their first NLL game on Saturday night after heading north from San Jose for the 2010 season, and in a new city with a new barn and almost 5000 new fans, the Stealth were able to win their first game at the ComCast Center in Everett 17-8 over the Colorado Mammath. Maybe it was the quick trip down the I-5, or maybe it was the rush of playing your first game in the bigs, but two Junior Adanacs were a huge part of the Washington win.

The Top Graduating Player in the BCJALL in 2007, Adanacs’s goalie Tyler Richards made 45 saves on 53 shots to earn his first W of 2010. After backing up Matt Roik for most of 2009, Richards got the nod from Coach Hall for the first start of the 2010 season. Richards was up against a lot of familiar faces on the Colorado club. Richards’ summer teammates in New Westminster Ilja Gajic and Cliff Smith threw 18 shots at him, with only 3 sneaking by. And his old rivals from the BCJALL, Alex Gajic, Brad Richardson and Cory Conway were all shut down. The 23 year-old Richards is making a strong case to become the Stealth’s number one tender in 2010.

Another big factor in the Washington win was the play of current Junior Adanac Matt Beers. The Adanac Captain and fan favorite was selected 13th overall in the NLL Draft back in September and with another year of Junior still left to play, surprisingly got the call from the big club to start the 2010 season. The defensive specialist not only made his way up the floor to score a goal, he also fought not once, but twice in his NLL debut. The first bout coming in the third quarter against Peter Veltman of the WLA Adanacs, seven years Beer’s senior. Round two was against former BC Junior A MVP Ilija Gajic. Beers in no stranger to the Gajic family, his battles with Alex were tenacious in 2008 and Ilija took Saturday night as a chance to stick up for his younger bro. An Everett newspaper said Beer’s looked like the enforcer of the Stealth line-up. Lttle did that reporter know that Beers is probably the youngest player in the league!

You can follow Matt Beers in his final year of junior lacrosse, as his Adanac’s host the best in the nation at the 2010 Minto Cup.

Brad Challoner
Play by Play Voice of the Coquitlam Junior Adanacs
Email Brad; bcjall@hotmail.com