The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2009 13 All-star action Holy Trinity's Kristen Earle (left) powers the ball off the block of Assumption's Natalie Fisher (centre) and E.C. Drury's Tory McCutcheon during last week"s Halton high school girls' all-star volleyball game in Burlington. The West, featuring Burlington and Milton athletes, downed the East team of Halton Hills and Oakville players 25-17, 2510, 25-18. White Oaks' Shannon Stack was the East MVP. RIZIERO VERTOLLI / OAKVILLE BEAVER Last-second layup earns Aquinas OFSAA gold "It was crazy to do that, especially at OFSAA," said the Grade 12 point guard. "It's the biggest basket s Kyle Enright launched the I've ever had. I'll definitely remempotential game-winning ber that the rest of my life." shot from the corner, Matt Blaha and his teammates Blaha must have been tempted to weren't even certain at first that the just stand and watch. basket would stand. It was, after all, a moment that "We went to watch how the refplayers dream of, the dying sec- erees reacted. They counted it and onds in a tie game with a major then we could start yelling and championship at stake. jumping, a lot of craziness," said Blaha trusts Raiders centre Ryan Enright as the St. "It's the biggest Thomson, who wasn't Thomas Aquinas basket I've ever surprised to see Blaha Raiders' most reliable had. I'll definitely come up with the long-range shooter. remember that the clutch play. "Matt's a Even so, Blaha headpretty good player to rest of my life." ed for the basket, have down the stretch undetected by any of of the game. He knows Aquinas point guard his London what to do and has Matt Blaha Westminster oppobeen playing for a long nents. time." He had noticed Enright, It was a dramatic conclusion to swarmed by defenders, bobble the an already dramatic game. ball slightly before launching his The teams had gone back and shot. Blaha instantly recognized the forth in regulation, with Aquinas shot would fall short of the rim, ahead after the first quarter, caught the ball before it hit the Westminster leading at halftime floor and hoisted it up through the and the clubs deadlocked after three mesh as the buzzer sounded. quarters. The Raiders then Instant hero. appeared to pull away in the fourth, Blaha's layup in the last second building a 48-41 lead with four of overtime Wednesday in Timmins minutes to go. gave the Raiders a 55-53 victory and "I thought if we could get one or Aquinas' first-ever Ontario two more stops, they'd start fouling Federation of School Athletic us. We're a good shooting team," Associations basketball gold medal, Aquinas head coach Mark Maga something that didn't even hit said. "But they knocked down a Blaha until he was back at the couple threes and it was almost like See Raiders page 14 team's hotel that night. BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR By Jon Kuiperij A Trinity wrestler wins provincial bronze By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Athletes often talk about giving that little bit extra to achieve success. For Holy Trinity's Zack Falconi, it was pulling back that helped him reach new heights. A year after being knocked out in the quarter-finals at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) wrestling meet, the Grade 10 student earned a bronze medal at the provincial high school championships. Falconi pinned L'Essor's Noel Tremblay to finish third in the 51-kilogram division and claim his school's first individual OFSAA medal in any sport, finishing the tournament with a 5-1 record. "He's a lot calmer," said his dad and coach, Eddie Falconi. "He's a very aggressive wrestler and last year he let that aggressiveness get the better of him. You still have to think. It has to be a controlled aggression. His technique has improved, too. Last year, he was basically just a brawler." Falconi said last year's experience also helped. He admitted he was intimidated walking into the Powerade Centre in Brampton last year and seeing the wrestling mats spread out over the floor of the hockey arena. This time around, having experienced it before, Falconi was not shaken by the size of the tournament and he had a much better knowledge of his opponents. Having dedicated himself more to the sport, Falconi See Points page 14