Senior Men Win Silver Medal at MLWP Finals

The Toronto Golden Jets senior men's team made a big splash at the (Major League Water Polo) MLWP Finals on the weekend by winning its first ever SILVER MEDAL after not qualifying for the playoffs last year. For Saturday's semi-final, the Golden Jets were matched against last year's champion, CAMO (Montreal). CAMO drew first blood early in the first quarter but the Jets rebounded with goals by Alan Chung and Jamie Earle to lead 2-1 after one quarter of play. In the second quarter, the Jets continued to roll scoring two goals (Earle with his second and Michael Chapman) to lead 4-1 by the mid-point of the second quarter. However, the defending champions were not going to go down easily and scored twice near the end to trail only by one (4-3) at the half. The Jets got two more goals from Chapman as he completed the hat trick and led 6-3 early in the third quarter. CAMO got one back to make it 6-4 but then Simon Porter scored two beautiful goals out of the centre forward position to put the Jets up 8-4 before ex-Golden Jet Rob Clark made it 8-5 with a goal at the horn. The 4th quarter was filled with high emotion as both teams railed at the refereeing. In the end, the only goal of the quarter was scored by CAMO and the Golden Jets were off to the final with an upset 8-6 win over the defending champions. The final on Sunday was a dramatic, intense, hard-fought game. The Jets were heavy underdogs having lost badly 3 times to the Mavs during the regular season. Som Seif opened the scoring for the Jets on a long shot to the far side. The goal was the only one of the first quarter as both teams battled relentlessly. The Jets couldn't score in the second quarter but gave up an even strength and power play goal to trail 2-1 at the half. Worse, the league's leading scorer and Jets' outside threat, Mark Meli fouled out of the game on a couple of very questionnable calls. It seemed that the inevitable would now happen as expected. But, drawing on an intense team spirit, the Jets went out in the third quarter and played manic defence to shut out their opponent while Jamie Earle and Alan Chung netted late goals to give the Jets a 3-2 lead after three quarters. The pool was electric as the fans of both teams saw the great contest now being played out. Then a goal against only 19 seconds into the 4rd quarter put the game back even at 3-3. Both teams had chances throughout the quarter but came up empty and the struggle was going to go into overtime. Midway through the first of the two 3-minute periods, the Jets gave up a counter-attack goal to fall behind 4-3. Then, less than a minute later, a defensive mix-up left an open shooter and the Jets were down 5-3 heading into the final 3 minutes of action. The task seemed insurmountable. The players on both sides were dead tired. Then, with only a minute and a half left, Jamie Earle posted up and roared out of the water to blast in his second goal of the game and the Jets were within one. Would it be possible to get to a shoot out? Up until 40 seconds to go ( a total of almost 6 quarters of play), the Jets had not received a single power play opportunity while their opponents had been given six. Finally, the Jets got the opportunity. The attack at the net was furious but, fatigued, the shooters couldn't muster enough velocity to find the back of the net and the Jets fell 5-4. The Jets men displayed a great deal of courage, teamwork and fortitude and served as a great example to the entire club. While disappointed at coming so close, the team should be proud of its silver medal!