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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, July 3, 2014 | 16 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community" Immediate impact End-of-season acquisition Joe French leading Oakville Buzz attack in playoffs by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver Staff Oakville Buzz players (in white) celebrate after scoring a goal Friday at Toronto Rock Athletic Centre. Oakville rode back-to-back five-point efforts from recently-acquired Joe French to win the first two games of its Ontario Lacrosse Association junior B playoff series with the Newmarket Saints, 11-5 Friday and 13-4 Sunday. The Buzz looks to close out the first-round best-of-five affair tomorrow (Friday) when it hosts Game 3. | photo by Eric Riehl -- Oakville Beaver -- @Halton_Photog Two weeks ago, Joe French's season was coming to a close. Despite French's 27-goal campaign (in just 14 games), the Mimico Mountaineers' fading playoff hopes were dealt a fatal blow with a pair of losses to the Oakville Buzz in the final week of the Ontario Lacrosse Association junior B season. Ironically, the Buzz would be French's ticket to the post-season when it acquired him from Mimico on the final day of the regular season. "I was happily transplanted to Oakville," he said. "When they picked me up on the last day, I was pretty excited." Oakville has to be pretty happy with his arrival as well. French's first goal in a Buzz uniform broke a 4-4 tie in Friday's playoff opener and kickstarted a run that saw Oakville score seven of the next eight goals on its way to an 11-5 victory over the Newmarket Saints. Two days later, he had three goals and two assists as the Buzz won 13-4 to take a 2-0 lead in its bestof-five opening-round series. With five goals and 10 points in the two games, French, who was named the first star in both contests, leads the team in playoff scoring. "I'm pretty fortunate," the Toronto native said. "It's a good group of guys and after being together for such a short time, we seem to have some chemistry." This isn't French's first foray into Oakville. He spent a year of minor lacrosse here as a 14-year-old playing on a unit with current Buzz teammate Jake Nyhuus. But it's Foster Cuomo and Eddie Renaud he's gelled with since joining the Buzz. That trio combined for 12 goals and 25 points in the two victories. During its eight-game winning streak to close the regular season, the Buzz had never trailed past the midway point of a game, a streak that was threatened in both games. A shorthanded goal pulled Newmarket even in the opener, but French scored 24 seconds later on the same power play and the Buzz was never challenged again. "Being the first playoff game, I think everyone was very excited and hyped up and it took a while to get back to our game," said Renaud, who finished the game with two goals and three assists and had a hat trick in Game 2. "Everybody was gripping their stick a little too tight but we settled down after Benty (coach Mike Bentivegna) gave us a good talk." French, having been on the other side, offers a different perspective. "Mostly, we just turn it into a track meet and run and get out there and push the pace," he said. "That wears teams down. We can dig deep with this roster, right down to the 18th guy. We empty the tank every night and not many teams can match that for 60 minutes." In Game 2, Oakville outscored Newmarket 9-1 in the second half of the game after holding a slim 4-3 lead at the midway point. Now the Buzz will look to finish off Newmarket at home tomorrow (Friday, 8 p.m. at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre). "We're feeling really good and hopefully we can get another," Renaud said. "As the series have been going, Akwesasne (the Buzz's likely second-round opponent) looks like they will sweep so it would be good for us to go 3-0." NOTES: Nyhuus had a pair of goals in the opener while Pat Shea had a goal and three assists. Andrew Kew, Colton Watkinson, Keyan McQueen and Sam Neeb also scored... Cuomo had two goals and three assists in Newmarket and McQueen had a goal and five assists. Troy O'Donnell had a goal and three assists while Liam Corbett, Robert Hudson and Shea had Oakville's other goals. Josh Falkenstern made 32 saves for his second win of the series. -- Herb Garbutt can be followed on Twitter @Herbgarbutt