Spirits fall to Westminster in box lacrosse final

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - A local lacrosse team tried to bring home a national title on Sunday.

The Thousand Islands Spirits were looking to advance to the North American Box Lacrosse League championship game, meeting the Minneapolis Wheat Kins in the semifinals Sunday morning.

- Tied at 1, Carter Kempney dents net with the rocket. It’s 2-1 Spirits.

- Tied at 2 in the second, Chris Ryan scores one of his 3 goals and it’s 3-2 Spirits.

- Then it’s Montana Pierce with the nice move in front. It’s 4-2 Spirits.

-Tied at 4 in the third, Ryan’s rocket puts the Spirits up 5-4.

- In the fourth, Ryan ices one to make it 8-6

The Spirits defeated the Minneapolis Wheat Kings 8-6 to advance to the NABLL championship in their first year of existence, setting up an afternoon meeting with the Westminster Wild for the title.

In the title game the Spirits would face defending champ Westminster.

- Down 4-0 in the second, Luke Rogers finds the mark. It’s 4-1 Wild.

- In the fourth, now 9-1, Wild Kaine Kettle sneaks one home and it’s 9-2 Wild.

- Alex Cook then finds the back of the net to make it 9-4.

- With the score 10-4 Chris Ryan splits the pipes.

The Spirits fall to Westminster 12-5. Despite the loss, it was a great first season for the Spirits.

It was a record setting day on the final day of the 2023 Minn Kota Bassmaster Elite at St. Lawrence River.

Patrick Walters would haul in a day four total of 24 pounds, 10 ounces to take home the title, beating former champ Chris Johnston, whose day four haul of 25 pounds, 12 ounces came up less than two pounds short.

Walters’ four-day total of 105 pounds even set a record for a four-day smallmouth total in Bassmaster history...

Johnston, Kyoya Fujita, who finished third, and Taku Ito, who placed fourth, all surpassed the century mark this weekend.

“To tell you the truth, I just felt like everything kind of worked out,” Walters said. “It was weird how every decision you made you would just catch one. I felt coming into this week I was going to have a good tournament but you can’t expect it. Practice was decent but the best day of practice I had was 24 pounds. I didn’t realize that much potential was out there and I stayed in the river the first day, tried to fish the conditions ‘cause I didn’t want to go to my fish in the lake and it was absolutely fluke luck.”

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