Hunters headed to Halton Hills

The Kahnawake Junior B Hunters have officially clinched the number two seed in the East after finishing their season 15-5, a dramatic improvement on their 2024 regular season, where they finished 8-12.

What matters now, though, is whether their 2025 playoffs will be an improvement over last year, when they lost the Ontario Junior B Lacrosse League (OJBLL) finals to the Elora Mohawks in what was their furthest playoff run ever.

Now, their eyes are on getting to the Founders Cup.

To get there, though, they first have to face off against the number seven seed Halton Hills Bulldogs, whom the Hunters beat decisively 16-4 on May 24 in their only regular-season matchup.

Although they will be going into their first playoff game Saturday on the heels of a 14-11 overtime loss at home against the Akwesasne Thunder, it is better to get those kinds of games out of the way now, according to longtime lacrosse coach Al Jones, who is the father of Hunters’ defender Darris Jones and has been to most, if not all of his son’s games with the Hunters .

“Their last loss was unfortunate, but they got that out of the way. It’s better than getting that in the first round of the playoffs. I think that last loss wasn’t really the worst thing in the world, because now they can move forward and fix the few things that they need for the playoffs,” said Jones.

No matter what their record in the regular season was, now that it’s playoff time, every team will be fighting for their lives - much like the eighth-seed Hunters did in last year’s playoffs, and what this year’s Hunters are hoping to avoid happen to them.

“Every team is coming and giving their best, because it’s either your season is going to end, or you can move on. There’s no leeway,” said Jones.

The first game of the playoffs for the Hunters on Saturday will be at 7 p.m. at Gordon Alcott Arena, with another game in the same arena the next day at 4 p.m. Their first home game of the playoffs is June 27 at 8 p.m.

They’ll be banking on the play on offense of their five 50+ point players: Kaymen Diabo, who reached triple digits (100) and leads the team in goals (46), Owen Rice (91 points), Shakononhkwahtsheronniennis Rice (72), Deeland Martin (65), and Connor Gorman, who had 51 points in just 12 games.

The Junior C Hunters, meanwhile, will also be playing in at least one play-in game as the number four seed. With two games remaining in their regular season, and holding a 4-10 record, the number five seed Akwesasne Lightning cannot reach them, and the number three Cornwall Celtics are four points ahead of the Hunters, but have the tiebreaker after winning their matchup 16-13 on Tuesday night.

The winner of the game between the number four and number five seed will then face the number one seed, currently occupied by the North Shore Kodiaks, who defeated the Hunters in all three of their regular season meetings.

Head coach Eric Jacobs said that the team has shown improvement all season, playing much closer games even in losses - their last seven games have been decided by four or fewer goals.

In the loss to Cornwall, he found that the team failed to capitalize on what had been a good first two periods, with the Celtics scoring six times in the final frame.

He did praise the play of goaltender Ethan Brascoup, who was making his first-ever Junior start in net, but felt that the rest of the team could have made life for him a little easier.

“I feel like as a unit, we all have to help each other a little bit more, and we all have to realize there’s a little bit more to it than just we score and the goalie saves the ball. We gave up too many chances, too many rebounds, and gave them good quality looks,” said Jacobs.

Going into their last two games, on Friday at 8 p.m. against the Akwesasne Lightning in Akwesasne and on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Nepean against the Knights, Jacobs wants to see his team win out and set the tone for the play-in game.

“We need to get a little bit of confidence, and then go from there,” said Jacobs.

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