Langley Thunder: B.C. champions.

That's the honour bestowed upon Langley's bantam A1 lacrosse team after it edged the Coquitlam Adanacs 5-4 in a provincial gold medal showdown Sunday at Burnaby's Bill Copeland Arena.

This marked the first ever A1 gold medal for the Langley Minor Lacrosse Association.

"The boys played awesome," Thunder head coach Tom Johnson said. "That Coquitlam team may have been a better team on paper, but we definitely outworked them, that's for sure."

The win avenged the Thunder's 7-6 loss to the Adanacs in the tournament opener.

The Thunder ran the table the rest of the way, and finished with an impressive 6-1 tournament record.

"We knew we could do it, but at the same time, they're such good kids. They knew what it would take to beat [the Adanacs]," Johnson said. "In the first game- we knew we made a bunch of mistakes but we stuck to our game plan - the more possessions we have, the more chances we have at scoring goals."

Johnson said discipline was a "huge" factor in the gold medal game.

"I think we had eight penalties in the first two periods, so the reffing definitely wasn't on our side, but we cleaned it up and didn't take [a penalty] in the third."

The B.C. championship showdown was Coquitlam's second loss all year. Both defeats came to Langley and both were in gold medal games, the first being at the Calgary Canada Day Weekend Tournament.

Langley goaltender Roman Rose took home the Warrior Sports Canada Most Valuable Player award in the bantam A1 division.

Rose said the Thunder dominated the Adanacs during the latter parts of the championship game.

"We had struggled with them all season, but we pulled it out in the second and third periods," Rose said.

On a personal note, Rose said he "struggled a bit, there," in the first period but found his form after that.

"I rebounded well, making key saves at key times and I also owe my success to my defence," he said.

The B.C. champion Thunder include: Roman Rose, Ryan Martel, Caleb Pearson, Carson Yamamoto, Christian Bosa, Connor Watson, Daniel Stead, Dawson Calfa, Ethan Goodman, Jesse Wellenbrink, Max Joseph, Manny Dewsbury, Hudson Shelvey, Nathaniel Kozevnikov, Quinn McKitrick, Ryan Alcos, and Ryan Wellburn.

The team is coached by Tom Johnson, Tyler Codron, Robert Bosa, and Rob Martel.

. . .

The Subway British Columbia Lacrosse Association (BCLA) Box Lacrosse Provincial Championships for the bantam division took place July 25-29 in Burnaby.

The Thunder was among the 30 teams from around the province competing for box lacrosse supremacy in the A1, A2, B, and C divisions.

A pair of Langley players took home Warrior Sports Canada Fair Play Awards. They were Caleb Pearson (A1) and Austin Gola (C).

sports@langleyadvance.com