July 24th, 2015

OAKVILLE - Nothing has come easily for the Oakville Rock this season, so it's fitting that as the team enters the final week of the Major Series Lacrosse season, that they'll need a win in either of their final two games; Monday at home against the Six Nations Chiefs and Thursday on the road against the Brampton Excelsiors. A win in either two of those games and the team which started out to an 0-7 start, will clinch their first ever playoff spot.

"It's definitley been a bit of a roller coaster this season," said Rock Assistant GM Garett Chisholme. "We started out missing a lot of our key players due to NLL committments, then we battled some injuries and of course the coaching change and winning four in a row. Now we've been battling for that final spot."

The Rock had a chance to lock up a playoff spot last Monday at home against Brooklin, after beating Kitchener-Waterloo 7-4 on Sunday. Without captain Stephan Leblanc and arguably their best defender in Damon Edwards, the Rock lost that game 9-5.

"It was a game we would've liked to win, but we're not discouraged," said Chisholme. "We know that in order to be a playoff team, you have to compete every night. When Matt Sawyer came in as coach he told the team that we're not going to look back at the past. We're going to look towards the future and we have two more opportunities to control our own destiny here. We want to make the playoffs, it would be a huge stepping stone for our organization."

So with that comes a few scenarios for the Rock, Redmen and Excelsiors. Any Rock win locks up a playoff spot. The Excelsiors have perhaps the best opportunity to clinch, with 3 games left the first in K-W on Sunday, then against Brooklin in the Redmen's final game of the season and Oakville in both team's final matchup. If Brampton wins out, they would clinch 3rd spot in the standings. If Brooklin wins out and Oakville loses out, Brooklin would hold the tie breaker with Oakville in games played during the season (3-1).

So it's simple. Win and you're in for Oakville, but it sure makes for an interesting final week in Major Series Lacrosse.