A trip to Palm Springs helped galvanize the 91原创 Thunder.

The U14 field lacrosse team went to California for a couple of days back in January, playing seven games over 48 hours.

And that trip was a major turning point for the club.

鈥淭hat made the difference,鈥� said coach Jason Kump, who leads the Thunder along with Rob Van Beek, a player with the .

鈥淣o other team (in our league) played that many games because of the weather so that trip gave us momentum.鈥�

And the Thunder tapped in on that momentum, capturing the silver medal at the B.C. tier 1 field lacrosse championships last week at the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex.

鈥淭hat trip helped develop our kids a lot faster,鈥� Kump said.

鈥淟eaps and bounds compared to the beginning of the season.鈥�

When the season started back in the fall, Kump said he never envisioned his team would be playing for the gold.

鈥淥ur goal was to make provincials and I thought maybe bronze was within our grasp,鈥� he admitted.

Instead, the Thunder shocked the top seed Coquitlam Adanacs 5-4 in the semifinals.

What made the victory even more remarkable 鈥� Coquitlam lost just twice all season 鈥� was that 91原创 did so with a short bench, having had three players suspended in the round robin.

Coquitlam and New Westminster, the top two teams, would routinely beat 91原创 by anywhere from 10 to 15 goals earlier in the year, Kump said.

New Westminster beat the Thunder, who had a full roster for the final,  7-5 in the gold medal game.

鈥淧laying with a short bench because of some suspensions, we could have thrown in the towel,鈥� Kump said.

鈥淭here was just a total team effort.鈥�

In the Thunder鈥檚 three round-robin games, they lost to New West 10-6 and beat Pacific Rim 10-8 and South Fraser 10-1.

Goaltender Levi Gallant earned most valuable player honours, while Quinn Beavis was the winner of the Warrior Fair Play award.

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91原创鈥檚 U12 and U16 teams were also at provincials.

The U16 team lost 10-8 to Coquitlam in the bronze medal game while the U12s failed to qualify for the medal round.

Johnny Pearson was the U16 most valuable player at the tournament and the Warrior Fair Play award winner.

Ryan Williams was the Warrior Fair Play award winner for the U12 team.