The Estevan Devils didn't let a short bench stop them pulling off a tall order - playing a competitive game with the Regina Bandits.Missing a number of players, including leading scorer Rhett Handley, the Devils travelled Monday to Regina for their Queen City Minor Box Lacrosse midget semifinal with the Bandits, falling 5-2.It was only the third time all season the undefeated Bandits (14-0-1) hadn't won by at least four goals."I think the biggest thing is we finally put in a full 60-minute game," said Devils assistant coach Hugh Davis. "That is what really made the difference the last two games for us because, during the season, we'd put in a 45-minute game then we'd kind of get a little lax for that five or 10 minutes and the other team would run the score up."River Lafferty scored both Estevan goals against a Regina team that had outscored the Devils 42-14 in four regular-season games."Our improvement was phenomenal," said Davis.With the win the Bandits will face the Regina Blue Devils for the league title. Estevan will close its inaugural QCMBL season by facing the oddly-named Regina Yellow Submarines for third place tonight in Regina.The Submarines are a team Devils head coach Evan Handley has had his sights set on for much of the season and Davis agrees that this is a much different Devils team than the one that lost all three regular-season games to the Subs."Tonight's game with having the shorter bench, and the game we won against Moose Jaw (June 14), really got the confidence going in our team," said Davis. "I think going into Wednesday's game we got a pretty good boost."The team we play Wednesday, the games have all been close so that's also in the back of our minds."
