The Estevan Big Dogs and Saskatoon Smash don't need familiarity to breed contempt.Once a year is proving more than enough.The teams met Sunday at the Lignite Miners Centre, with Saskatoon winning 19-4 in the Big Dogs' final home game of the 2010 Prairie Gold Lacrosse League season.The result wasn't ideal but it was the perceived lack of sportsmanship from the Saskatoon side that got to Estevan manager Jody Harris."The thing that gets me is the Smash guys Sunday were complaining about my kids being rough and it's just a bunch of crap coming from Saskatoon again," she said. "Tell your guys to settle down and we'll settle down too."If there's one thing the Big Dogs aren't, it's an aggressive team that cheap shots players. We take probably eight hits and give two back. We've got the odd guy who gets pissed off and he might give a butt-end of a spear but we're not a cheap shot team."Estevan's feud with the Smash dates back to last season when Saskatoon attempted to circumvent PGLL rules in order to avoid forfeiting a regular-season contest to the Big Dogs.The ensuing playoff game between the two teams was described as a physical one and words were exchanged between the two teams after the game as well.Saskatoon took 25 minutes in penalties in Sunday's game, including a hit from behind and a fighting major, while Estevan had 28 in the form of eight minors and a 10-minute misconduct.Harris also alleges one of the Smash coaches told one of the referees that he would send one of his players after Estevan's Trey Bernhardt if he stepped back on the floor."He should have been tossed from the game there needs to be a little more respect than that," said Harris.Saturday the Big Dogs fell 15-3 to the Saskatoon Steelers at the LMC.The star of the weekend, according to Harris, was Michael Bittman.With seven family members from Florida in attendance, the second-year forward assisted on Rhett Handley's second goal Saturday and then scored one of his own Sunday to round out Estevan's scoring."He was aggressive on the ball, fighting through their defenders, sometimes two-on-one, and he'd still have the ball and get the shot off," said Harris.On one shift, Harris added, Bittman recorded four shots on goal in a 25-second span."I felt like yesterday was a game I needed to step up and take my responsibility seriously and help out the team," Bittman said Monday.With Bernhardt and Ryan Curzon both out with broken bones, the Big Dogs (2-7) will play their last game of the regular season Friday in Regina against the hometown Rifles (4-5).PGLL playoffs are then scheduled for July 9-11 in Saskatoon.If enough players are available, the Big Dogs will compete in the consolation (Tier 2) side but their opponents will not be known until later this week."We just want to come together as a team more," said Bittman. "We need to work on our picks more and work on our offence. Our D [has been] pretty good but that's a continuous thing we need to work on too."
