We have reached the midpoint of the 2025 President’s Cup, as the nation’s best Sr. B teams have converged on Whitby, Ontario to chase one of Canada’s most prestigious trophies.
Known as a legendary gauntlet of a tournament, the 2025 version features two pools and a significantly paired down schedule (more on that below). But with the shorter tournament comes more drama, more energy and it has led to all around great lacrosse so far.
There is a lot to get to, but you can find all the scores for the tournament here. The entire tournament is also being broadcasted live on YouTube from the JVI Sports Network. Find the most recent game broadcast below.
But beyond the box score, let’s check out some major storylines from the tournament so far.
A Different Format
A big topic of conversation coming into this year’s President’s Cup was the fact that eight teams are in the field, with both Saskatchewan and Manitoba each bringing a team. That makes for a classic tournament format, with two four-team pools, three-round robin games, and then the crossover games all the way to the gold medal match.
In past years, with seven or nine teams in the tournament, the Prezzy has used some intense formats, with teams playing six or seven days in a row and typically having a day with two games. Of course, those extra games allowed teams to make different roster changes, rest some of their regulars, and slot in some players that you don’t see often.
With four games each day, teams have been able to scout their competition more closely and watch some teams they don’t see often or that have never been in the tournament in previous years. It has led to a generally tighter tournament.
NLL PLAYER RULES
A few years ago, Lacrosse Canada made adjustments and leveled the playing field in Sr. B lacrosse by allowing only three active National Lacrosse League players on each team. This was a major change from recent years. Especially post-COVID, many Sr. B teams were loaded up with predominantly NLL rosters.
This is down another two spots from last year, when five players NLL regulars were allowed.
We saw this the last few years with the Ladner Pioneers with goaltender Christian Del Bianco (Vancouver Warriors), Mitch Jones (Philadelphia Wings), Haiden Dickson (Calgary Roughnecks), and Tyler Pace (Calgary Roughnecks). On Standing Buffalo Fighting Sioux, they had Frank Sciliango (Saskatchewan Rush) and Curtis Dickson (Calgary Roughnecks).
It became a battle of both money and who’s available to make a push for the Prezzy, and as such, changes had to be made so that teams were unable to ‘stack’ their rosters and have multiple different players just choose where they want to play for the summer and play with their buddies.
The result this year is more depth and less star-power at the very top, but several teams will be in the hunt for the championship.
THE HOSTS
Readers may be reading this story and thinking to themselves, “The President’s Cup is in Whitby, but the Brooklin Merchants are the hosts?”. How does that work? Well, I’m going to explain it as best I can.
Gavin Prout is General Manager of the Brooklin Lacrosse Club Sr A team and the Brooklin Merchants Sr B team. After both Brooklin Sr teams, along with the Whitby Warriors Jr A organization, collaborated to purchase the New York Riptide turf to put down at Iroquois Park Sports Complex, Prout and the rest of the executive and board of directors agreed to move the Merchants from historic Luther Vipond Memorial Arena in Brooklin, to IPSC this summer in the lead up to the President’s Cup.
You can learn more about the decision-making behind the move from Vipond to Iroquois on the Lacrosse Classified Podcast, as Prout provides a few more details on the move 15 minutes down the road. Another reason was the facility itself.
Pad 1 at Iroquois has a seating capacity of roughly 1,200, with standing room for almost 1,500, which allows for more fans. It’s a much larger complex, and the air conditioning helps; the turf negates any towel wipes that come with concrete in the hot summer days, and there’s history at Iroquois. There have been a ton of memories made at both arenas, but Iroquois has been home to the Ontario Lacrosse Festival for 20 years, Minto Cups have been won in that building, along with Mann Cups and other major events.
It’s been a great host this week, and the energy should only build heading into the weekend.
ROUND ROBIN
After a quick history lesson on the Merchants and their move from Vipond to Iroquois, let’s get caught up on the games and key players to watch for, as the elimination games will begin on Wednesday.
Day 1
The first game of the 2025 President’s Cup featured the defending three-time champion Ladner Pioneers against the first-time team representing Manitoba, the Winnipeg Blizzard. Pioneers were able to win that game 11-5 as Alexander De La Ronde had five points for the Blizzard, while Erik Forsselius had six for Ladner.
Game number two featured the Saskatchewan Roadrunners taking on the Edmonton Miners, and this game saw Saskatchewan have only 10 runners, and Edmonton took full advantage of that by making President’s Cup history–that we can find on record– for the largest goal differential at a President’s Cup with a +29 as the Miners beat the Roadrunners 33-4.
The evening matchup saw the Six Nations Rivermen take on the Snake Island Muskies in a very physical affair that saw big names go toe-to-toe on both sides in Joey Spallina, Ryan Lanchbury, Skyylar Thomas, Matt, and Cameron Acchione for the Muskies, while the Rivermen had Thunder Hill, Danton Miller, Tye Bellanger, and Davin Bomberry for this tilt. After a back-and-forth game, it was Snake Island who came away with the 12-9 final.
The marquee matchup on Day 1 saw the Can-Am Lacrosse League representatives, Allegany Arrows, face off against the host, Brooklin Merchants. A two-all game after the first period became a 7-2 lead for Brooklin, but it was Allegany who clawed their way back, going on a five-goal run through the final 12 minutes of the game, but the Merchants were able to hold on for the win 12-10 as they played in their first President’s Cup game since 2016.
Day 2
Day 2 began with the Muskies fresh off a win over Six Nations, took on the Roadrunners in the morning matchup, and Saskatchewan was able to have a few more bodies on their roster after receiving word from Lacrosse Canada that their players were eligible. Austin Shanks was one of those players who slotted into the Roadrunners’ lineup as he finished with three points in this game, but it was all Snake Island who earned a 21-5 victory.
Game 2 on Day 2 was, unfortunately, another blowout as the Allegany Arrows used a full lineup to beat the Winnipeg Blizzard, using 12 different goal scorers en route to a 24-6 victory, but the Blizzard had nine different players tally a point, which is a positive for them and for senior lacrosse in Manitoba.
As the sun set on Whitby, the stars came out onto the turf for a pivotal game that saw the Six Nations Rivermen and the Edmonton Miners of the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League in a low-scoring game. David Anderson had seven points on the night, while Tye Bellanger made 41 saves in the Rivermen’s 9-6 win against the Miners, who are two-time silver medalists at the President’s Cup, and are eager to bring home the gold.
The night matchup was the Ladner Pioneers against the Brooklin Merchants. Two teams that were looking for the top spot in Pool A, as the hometown fans showed up to help propel the Merchants to another two-goal win, 9-7 over Ladner.
Day 3
The first game on the final day of round robin action was 2-0, Snake Island Muskies against the 1-1 Edmonton Miners, as the winner of that game would be in the top spot in Pool B. However, it was the Muskies who just used experience and depth to silence the Miners’ offence in a 10-3 victory.
In the second game, the Ladner Pioneers were in action after losing to the Brooklin Merchants the night before against the Allegany Arrows, and lost their second straight game as the Arrows grabbed a 13-6 win to improve to 2-1 while Ladner fell to 1-2.
Six Nations had the morning and afternoon to rest up before playing the Saskatchewan Roadrunner, and the Rivermen got the victory with a 20-8 win.
The final game of round robin play saw the Winnipeg Blizzard take on the tournament host, Brooklin Merchants, and Brooklin was too much competition against the Blizzard as they weathered the storm and were red hot, winning 14-9 and earning top spot in Pool A with a 3-0 record.
The quarter finals will see the Ladner Pioneers faceoff against the Six Nation Rivermen.
For the rest of the quarterfinals, the Allegany Arrows will play against the Edmonton Miners, The Snake Island Muskies will take on the Winnipeg Blizzard the Brooklin Merchants’ opponent will be the Saskatchewan Roadrunners.
All games can be streamed on YouTube at JVI Sports Network.