KITCHENER, ON (June 18, 2024) — The Toronto Beaches continued their unbeaten start to the 2024 season, taking a 13-7 win over the Kitchener-Waterloo Lacrosse Club on Tuesday night at Kinsmen Arena.
Willem Firth led the way once again for the Beaches offensively, scoring a hat trick and finishing the night with 10 points. Greg Palmer (4G, 3A), Hamish McPherson (4G, 2A), and Peyton Booth (5A) also had productive nights in the win.
Thomas Kiazyk turned away 36 shots to grab his 11th win of the year.
The Beaches started the contest on a blazing hot start, with Greg Palmer opening the scoring on Toronto’s first offensive touch of the game. He was followed by back-to-back goals from Hamish McPherson to make it a 3-0 lead in as many minutes of play.
Treyton Weinstein got K-W on the board with their first of the game four minutes later, but Palmer restored the three-goal lead at the 8:56 mark. Kitchener ended the first on a two-goal lead to close the gap to one. Malikye Good got a power-play marker and Max Frattaroli scored with three seconds left to make it a 4-3 game in favour of the Beaches through 20.
Just a minute and a half into the second, Clark Dunford got open and scored on the crease. But from there, Toronto was able to clamp down defensively and start to separate themselves from K-W. Palmer answered back a minute later with a laser that pinged the far side post to put the Beaches back in front. McPherson got his hat-trick goal on another outside look. The run continued with Firth outwaiting Bryce Wismer on top of the crease and rising up to stuff the ball over his shoulder. Hunter Lubiniecki topped things off with the eventual game-winner, picking up a rebound and slotting it home on the man advantage.
Good added his second of the night on a back-post finish to make it 8-5, but Firth made it 9-5 just 27 seconds later when he triggered a transition chance off an over-and-back call, ripping an outside shot past Wismer to send Toronto into the third with a four-goal lead.
Firth got his hat trick in the opening five minutes of the third period, finishing off a quick-stick connection with Palmer to get the Beaches into double digits. Palmer added another, and the Beaches opted to pull Kiazyk to let backup Nick Parolin finish things off.
Frattaroli and Chris Rathwell scored in the late goings, but Palmer and McPherson continued their strong nights to seal the victory for the Beaches.
Now sitting at 12-0 for the season, the Beaches head into a pivotal home-and-home against the Whitby Warriors to end the week. The first half will be at Ted Reeve, with opening face-off set for 8:00 p.m. ET. Friday’s game at Iroquois Park is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET.