Article from BPSN by Bill Potrecz | August 10, 2026
A season that started with no concrete expectations continues to get better and better for the St. Catharines WMKL Athletics.
The A’s defeated the Whitby Warriors 10-6 Sunday night to capture the Ontario Junior A Lacrosse League best-of-seven championship 4-2 and advance to the Minto Cup August 16-23 at the Max Bell Centre in Calgary.
It is the second straight trip to the national championship of Canadian Junior A lacrosse for St Catharines, who hosted the Minto Cup last season, which was won by the Coquitlam Adanacs of the British Columbia Junior A Lacrosse League.
“I’m kind of speechless,” head coach Dan Coates said. “I’m just so proud of our guys, the work they put in all summer, just with our staff, too.
“It’s pretty surreal right now, and our job’s not done; we know that. But just to see these guys, their excitement, and all their families and friends on the field after, it meant everything to us.”
The Athletics placed first overall in the regular season standings with a remarkable 15-3 mark, surprising many onlookers — and maybe even themselves.
“I don’t think we really had any expectations of this,” Coates said. Coates said after an opening-night win, he turned to assistant coaches for their assessment.
“I think we were all kind of like, collectively, we don’t know, so we just kind of kept with it, and we just kind of stayed focused on our job, and we didn’t really compare ourselves to anybody,” Coates said. “Any game was a new test for us, and we just kept stacking them, and we had the same mentality in playoffs. We ran the gauntlet, and there are some great teams in this league.”
The A’s jumped out to a 4-1 lead after one period Sunday and were up 5-3 after two. The Warriors scored a pair of quick goals in the third to even things up at 6-6 before Trent Mooradian and Ari Steenhuis quickly responded to shift the momentum back to the A’s.
“It was huge,” Coates said of Mooradian’s goal. “The things he’s doing that maybe don’t show up in the game sheet, like these big loose balls and timely goals. It’s a fifth-year player just stepping up,” Coates said. “And then Ari, those two at the end, were daggers and gave us some breathing room. But yeah, those guys were difference makers for us tonight.”
A’s netminder Ty Wilson faced 43 shots and was named playoff most valuable player.
Jameson Bucktooth, Steenhuis and Tayoni Gallante each had two goals for St Catharines, while Lukas Rozon, Isaiah Paul, Jaden Kennedy and Mooradian added singles.
The A’s will now focus their attention on the Minto Cup, where they will square off versus the Victoria Shamrocks of the BCJALL, the host Calgary Raiders and the Junior A Mountaineers of the Rocky Mountain Junior A Lacrosse League.
The A’s will be looking for their seventh Minto previously winning in 1947, 1950, 1990, 1991, 2001 and 2003.
“We’re obviously excited to be able to keep playing,” Coates said. “And I think it’s just a special group, and these guys care about one another, and we’re just excited we just keep this journey going.”
Seneca Players:
- Arrow Booth
- Jameson Bucktooth
- Tayoni Galante
- Jaden Kennedy
