Thunder raise $3,425 for charity, win third straight

by Gary Ahuja

Friends and family of Tessa Beauchamp were in attendance on Saturday night at Langley Events Centre for the Langley Thunder game in support of the Tessa Beauchamp Foundation. Ryan Molag Langley Events Centre photos

The Langley Thunder were winners on and off the turf on Saturday night.

On the turf, the Thunder scored the game’s final three goals to defeat the New Westminster Salmonbellies by a 9-7 score. And off the floor, the team helped raise $3,425 by auctioning off their specially designed game-worn jerseys with the proceeds going to the Tessa Beauchamp Foundation.

With the victory – which was a third straight for Langley – the Thunder improved to 6-4 on the Western Lacrosse Association season, which sees them sitting in fourth place in the seven-team league. New Westminster saw their record fall to 4-8.

Dane Dobbie scored five goals and finished with seven points to lead Langley, but it was an unlikely person playing hero. With the score tied at seven, Cal Slade – who is typically tasked with helping prevent goals – gathered up a rebound and raced down the floor and then completed the give-and-go with Dobbie for his first career WLA goal.

That stood as the winner with Dobbie scoring into the empty net in the dying seconds of the contest for the first two-goal lead by either team the entire game.

In addition to Dobbie’s seven points, Connor Robinson scored two goals and finished with five points while Curtis Dickson had five assists. Thomas Vaesen had the other Langley goal.

Steve Fryer made his first start of the season and turned aside 43 of the 50 New Westminster shots and was the game’s third star, behind Dobbie (first star) and the Salmonbellies’ Mitch Jones (one goal, four assists).

Jordan McBride (two goals, two assists) and Haiden Dickson (two goals, one assist) both had two-point games for New Westminster while goaltender Zach Higgins finished with 42 saves on 50 shots.

Up next for the Thunder is a visit from the Nanaimo Timbermen (7-5) on Wednesday, July 13 (7:00pm) at Langley Events Centre.

Tessa Beauchamp Foundation

Tessa passed away in 2012 at the age of 18, and the Tessa Beauchamp Foundation was created in 2013 to keep alive the caring, compassionate, competitive, and beautiful spirt of Tessa through the disbursement of scholarships to students in Canada and to distribute funds to registered charities to assist both locally and internationally.

Friends and family of Tessa Beauchamp were in attendance for Saturday night’s game.

“It means a lot (to the Foundation), especially after 10 years that there are still people out there who care and want to hear her story and are here to help celebrate her and support the Foundation in her name. It really means a lot,” said her sister Rachel Beauchamp. “Tessa would love this night. Anything to do with sports, she was always in. And just being able to see family and friends and to celebrate a good game, she would have loved it.”

The Thunder organization has designed and worn special jerseys for the Foundation every WLA season since 2013. This year’s jerseys were designed by Langley Events Centre graphic designer Ryan Molag, sponsored by Mike Vanichuk Transport Co. Ltd. and produced by Xtreme Threads.

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