Mark Stehlin
May 12, 2025
On a day when the Brooklin Merchants honoured mothers on their special day, they gave all fans a reason to celebrate with a convincing 13-4 win over the visiting Collingwood Cruise.
The hosts took care of business early with a 5-0 lead after the first period. In that period, they came out with three consecutive power play goals, two of those by Brooklin Lacrosse Club first round pick in the 2025 entry draft, Will MacLeod.
“It feels pretty good, I want to be able to help the boys out there and finding my way on the power play has been good. It’s great to jump right into the deep end and help where I can,” said MacLeod.
His four-goal outburst tonight, combined with three the other night in the 8-6 win over the Six Nations Rivermen, sees him off to an impressive start in this next level of lacrosse.
When asked about his move from junior to senior lacrosse, MacLeod explained it this way, “two different games, everyone is so much bigger, stronger and faster, and the ball moves so much quicker.”
The offensive pressure continued into the middle frame and this time it was returning veteran, Zac Carrigan who notched three goals to propel the home team to a 7-0 period win and a 12-0 lead after 40 minutes.
Credit to the Cruise who decided to play for pride coming into the third period. They rattled off four straight of their own, ruining the shut-out effort of Lukas Coote in the Brooklin net. But on this night, the Merchants would not be denied and with a late marker took the win by 13-4 to improve to 2-1 on this early part of the season.
The Merchants (2-1) will pack up their gear for a mid-week trip to Ennismore to take on the James Gang (0-2) on Tuesday May 13 at 8 pm.
Scoring for the Merchants – Renaud (1,3) Carrigan (4,4) MacLeod (4,3) Elliott (2,1) D Pipher (1,2) Crawford (1,0) Costello (0,1) Hamley (0,2) McCrory (0,2) Reed (0,1) P Pipher (0,4)
Prior to the game the Merchants celebrated their 25th anniversary season with a ceremonial face-off featuring opposing head coaches and former teammates, Ryan Degerdon and Andy Glen. They also handed out 2024 team awards as follows:
Top Scorer – Parker Pipher
Top Defensive Player – Jacob Hickey
Most Dedicated Player – Ed Renaud
Most Valuable Player – Deacan Knott