IL Indoor

Nic Grasby's hat trick led the Oakville Titans as they denied Owen Sound a win in Adam Jones' NorthStars debut.

Adam Jones finally played his first indoor lacrosse game of the summer and everyone wanted to watch. Including, apparently, his teammates. Jones and his hometown Owen Sound NorthStars were facing the Oakville Titans with plenty on the line in terms of standings as the league winds down the regular season. A win would have put Owen Sound alone into second place, just one point behind the leading St. Catharines Saints. Instead, though, Oakville’s 8-6 win put the Titans into a first-place tie and left the NorthStars sitting in fifth with three games to play. Owen Sound head coach Brandon Sanderson said part of the problem was his new teammates waiting around for Jones to take control of the game.

“I think a lot of people were watching Jonesy trying to let him do everything,” Sanderson told Bayshore Broadcasting News Centre. “That’s not what I want and not what I said at the start of the game. He’s a great player; we need guys around him to be better for him.” Jones had a goal and an assist. Brandon McMillen and Tyler Gibbons each scored a pair of goals for the NorthStars.

Nic Grasby led the Titans with three goals and an assist and Jay Preece made 31 saves for the win, including 14 in the third period. Sanderson said the other problem Owen Sound encountered in the game was a bad habit they’ve been trying to break all year. “Every team likes to break off off us,” he said. “We seem to like to stand around and they had three breakaway goals and that’s the game.”

Preece played a big role in the Titans’ win beyond his saves, earning assists on all three of their goals in the third period as Oakville pulled away from a 5-5 tie after 40 minutes to secure the win.

Jones was able to join the NorthStars after obtaining a release from the Brooklin Redmen. The Major Series team is believed to have  agreed to the arrangement on the condition that he play enough games with Brooklin to become eligible for the MSL playoffs and the Mann Cup if the Redmen can win the league and earn the right to play host to the Canadian championship this summer.

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