14U Cudas look to end strong season with Provincials gold

By Lethbridge Herald on July 7, 2022.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Barracudas 14U lacrosse  team are looking to end off an already successful season with a Provincials title in Cold Lake this weekend.

“I’m feeling really good,” said Cody Firth, 14U head coach.

“We got a good look at the competition for Provincials and as far as I can tell I think we have a really good chance if we play our game to come home with the medal we want.”

After winning the home Floorbusters Memorial Tournament , the team would go on to win the Strathmore tournament and a silver in the Medicine Hat tournament after being defeated by the Moose Jaw Mustangs —which was the only loss they concealed in going  22-1 on the season.

The Cudas also won a league final tournament in Medicine Hat  and the closest match was within nine goals.

“It was a blessing in disguise to lose a game to just be able to work on things that I saw in that game that typically we don’t see because we’re playing weaker teams,” said Firth.

“And moving on from that, we’ve  got a lot of positivity out of the guys. They know they played poorly and what to do when we get in that situation again.”

The Cudas will be playing four unfamiliar opponents and possibly a fifth if they make the final.

“Every team in this tournament we haven’t played against,” he said.

“So it going to be a fun tournament where we’ve got to really just prepare to change things on the fly.”

Their end goal from the onset of the season was to take home the provincial banner.

“So everything we’ve done, we’ve tried to have the end in mind,” said Firth.

“Like that Moose Jaw game, even though we lost, it’s really going to prepare us to beat some tough teams when we get to it in Provincials.”

Lethbridge will be the only the representative from the south.