“Wrong one Rubes.”
These were the words of Nick Rose, which put the final nail in the coffin of one of the great rivalries in lacrosse history.
Every summer in Canadian lacrosse presents its own history and folklore. Junior A teams across the country vie every year for the Minto Cup and without exception, that road is paved with adversity, rivalry, and grit.
However, the summer of 2009 was different. That year, the Orangeville Northmen and Brampton Excelsiors played each other an incredible 13 times! The two teams played twice in the regular season, seven times in the Ontario finals, one game in the Minto Cup round robin, and three more in the Minto Cup finals.
This series deserves a much longer history, but let this summary do the job for now.
The Ontario Finals were particularly legendary, as Orangeville overcame a 3-0 series deficit and completed a reverse sweep to win in game seven.
These rosters were loaded with future NLL talent. Orangeville was led by Adam Jones, and featured future NLL names like Jeremy and Jason Noble, Andrew Suitor, Damon Edwards, Jesse Gamble, Brad Gillies, the Harnett brothers, and more.
Brampton featured a backline bolstered by Kyle Rubisch and Chris Corbeil, and were led in scoring by Andrew Potter and Mike Burke.
Brampton was back-stopped by Steve “The Deep” Fryer, while Orangeville was led by Nick Rose. Orangeville’s back up (yes, you are reading this right) was Dillon Ward.
It was the last year of the small-net era in junior lacrosse as well, so the junior teams were still playing on four foot by four foot nets during the Ontario season. The scores reflected the quality of the goaltending, and the size of the nets.
The scores from the Ontario finals were the following:
| Game | Winner | Score |
| 1 | Brampton | 10 – 3 |
| 2 | Brampton | 8-6 |
| 3 | Brampton | 6 – 5 |
| 4 | Orangeville | 13 – 5 |
| 5 | Orangeville | 9-5 |
| 6 | Orangeville | 6-4 |
| 7 | Orangeville | 9-6 |
Imagine that, only twice during the seven games did either of the teams score 10 goals or more.
Fast forward to the Minto Cup, and Brampton defeats Coquitlam to advance to the Minto finals. Coquitlam, no slouches in their own right, featured NLL stars Robert Church, Ben McIntosh, Matt Beers, and the Cornwall brothers. In 2010, they would add Mark Matthews to their line up and win the Minto Cup.
Back to 2009, after splitting the first two games, Brampton is losing to Orangeville in the third period. With nothing left to lose, Brampton chooses to call for an equipment check on the goaltender Rose.
Rubisch recounted the story on episode 101 of the Back of the Bird Podcast.
In a back dressing room of the (then-named) Powerade Center, Rubisch, Rose, and Suitor met with officials. As the representative of the Excelsiors, Rubisch had to select which leg pad of Rose’s to examine.
When he made his selection, Rose looked at him and let him know that he made a mistake.
“Wrong one Rubes,” said Rose.
“All I remember really after that is just (Andrew Suitor) running out on the floor like a maniac waving his stick and the Orangeville crowd going crazy. And that kind of sealed the deal for us,” said Rubisch.
And so ended one of the legendary summers in Ontario and Canadian history. Stay tuned for the 35 part documentary coming in 20 years.
Check out the rest of the Rubisch interview on Back of the Bird here:
Or listen wherever you get your podcasts here: