The Northmen did it again. For the 12th time in franchise history and the second in a row, the Northmen hoisted the Iroquois trophy on Monday as OJLL Champions.
It was another finish that needed to be seen to be believed, very reminiscent of the Northmen’s loss in Whitby in game four. With the Warriors winning 7-5 with less than 30 seconds remaining, an Aaron Toguri individual effort in transition brought the Northmen within one.
After winning the faceoff, the Northmen had just 7 seconds on the clock to get the ball down the floor. It was enough to get the ball to Max Kruger, who deposited the ball with clearly one second remaining on the clock to improbably send the Northmen to overtime.
It didn’t take long in the extra frame, as Dylan Sanderson scored off a broken play on the Northmen’s first offensive possession of the game to seal the victory and send the Northmen back to the Minto Cup.
Liam Matthews led all scorers in the game with 2 goals and 3 assists, while Sanderson, Kruger and Trey Deere had 3 points each.
Julien Belair, Matt Ford and Nolan Byrne each scored twice for the Warriors, who led 5-3 after two periods and looked to be heading back to Orangeville one more time. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t meant to be.
A Series Unlike Any Other
The 2025 OJLL Finals will be a series that is remembered for a long time, for the oddities that made it unique.
In the six-game series, games finished in overtime four times, making this one of the most tightly contested series in league history. I wrote about this yesterday, but Whitby actually finished this series with a positive goal differential. They won 10-5 in game two and took their four losses by a combined four goals.
But it wasn’t just the overtime results that will stick out, but the two unbelievable collapses by either team in games four and six. It’s hard to imagine a crazier turn around at the end of a game, with a team scoring twice in the last 30 seconds in what was otherwise a very low-scoring series. For it to happen twice is the kind of drama that only sports can provide.
At times, this series lacked the goal-scoring and highlight reel plays of others. But in the end, it delivered.
Aaron Toguri Gets His First
Playing in his 22nd game for the Northmen, Aaron Toguri had yet to find the score sheet. The 21-year old defender had played his entire career for the Mimico Mountaineers, losing to the Northmen last year. But a deadline trade brought the Mimico Captain to his former rivals.
Toguri has been arguably the best defender in these playoffs, making a key defensive stop in game three that preserved the victory for Orangeville.
As a player, you are not always sure when your opportunities will come, but you can control being ready. In the biggest moment, with the smallest of windows, Toguri made a decisive, aggressive dodge to the net and scored to bring the Northmen within one.
The conventional wisdom in that scenario would have been to pull the ball out and set up a 6v5 or even call a timeout. Toguri after all was not on a breakaway, but had two men back in front of him on defence. But the game is played inside the box, and he showed great instincts to make his move and get to the net.
He finishes his Northmen career in Ontario with just one goal, but it will be one that lives in Northmen history forever.
A Word on the Warriors
It’s important to spend some time on the 2025 Warriors here as well. They are arguably the most resilient team of all time, playing an incredible 18 playoff games this summer. They went the full five games with St. Catharines, the full seven with Beaches and six games with Orangeville.
Whitby fans will likely remember this as the year they lost some players due to Team Canada commitments, and there is no doubt that this played a role in the rest of the series.
But this team should be remembered as the team that absolutely refused to quit for any reason. Even in the face of losing their players, they refused to back down to a Northmen team that many would have thought would roll the rest of the series.
The Warriors had nine graduating players in the lineup last night, including Robert Baxter, Gabriel Sorichetti, Ryan Langille, Ethan Lee, Eddy Ferrede, Nolan Byrne, Owen Tapper, Ben Kromer and Max Taylor.
Several of those players are Minto Champions themselves, and all of them played with a champion’s spirit in this series. It wasn’t the result they wanted, but the Warriors put up an incredible fight in the summer of 2025. Now they should all take some much needed rest.
What’s Old is New Again
It’s somewhat fitting that in a year when the Northmen documentary was released, it was Max Kruger and Dylan Sanderson who would become the heroes in yet another Northmen championship.Â
LCD contributor Jake Elliott said it well on X after the game, it’s the mid 1990’s all over again in Orangeville.Â
Carrying on their respective family legacies in Orangeville, Kruger and Sanderson are two symbols of the incredible development system that is the Northmen minor lacrosse association and the Hill Academy. They were both members of a legendary minor team that dominated throughout their young careers and both will be huge parts of the Northmen program for years to come.Â
For a rookie and a second year player, they both played well beyond their years in this series, and could form one of the best two-man pairs in history if they continue on this trajectory.
Of course, Orangeville has unfinished business after losing the Minto Cup last year. Their hunt for redemption begins Saturday in St. Catharines. We will have coverage all tournament long.Â
But for now, the Northmen are the Ontario champions. What a season it was.