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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, November 24, 2011 · 32 French h connection h helped l d Ridge d reach h junior football f b ll final f l But Trailblazers lbl denied d d Halton l crown with h 17-6 loss to undefeated Milton District By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF HAMILTON -- Kris Reeve admits he had no idea what to expect when he took over the Iroquois Ridge junior football team. Reeve was new to the school so he didn't know the players who arrived at the field for the first practice. The Trailblazers had reached the Halton Tier 3 final the year before but many of those players had moved on to the Ridge senior squad. And there definitely was no way Reeve or anybody else associated with the team could have anticipated the impact a couple of rookies would have on the team. Maruis Barbot and Guillame Royer came to the Trailblazers from the football hotbed of France. Asked what he knew about the game before arriving at Iroquois Ridge as an exchange student, Barbot summed it up succinctly. "Nothing," he said. "I learned the rules here." Barbot certainly didn't look like someone who first picked up a football two months ago. He ran for 56 yards on 13 carries and scored Iroquois Ridge's only touchdown in yesterday's (Wednesday's) 21-6 loss to the Milton District Mustangs in the Halton junior j boys' y Tier 3 foot- ball final. Barbot was actually supposed to be back in France but he managed to extend his stay by a week to play in the championship game. "Football is my passion now," said Barbot, who said there is a team back home, though "they aren't very good." He might be able to give them some pointers when he returns. Royer, who didn't know Barbot before they arrived in Oakville, is already back in France, having been unable to change his ticket. "They both came over in September and they learned the game so quickly," said Iroquois Ridge assistant coach Mike Szarka. "(Royer) was one of our best defensive players and he was sorely missed in the playoffs." Of course, Iroquois Ridge had plenty of homegrown talent as well. It went 6-0 in the regular season and then edged OT 22-21 in last week's semifinal. And the Trailblazers might have been able to pull out another victory Wednesday had a couple of breaks gone their way against Milton, who also came into the game undefeated. The Trailblazers recovered two fumbles in the second quarter but couldn't turn them into points against the league's stingiest defence. Then, , up p 7-0, , Milton q quar- ERIC RIEHL / OAKVILLE BEAVER IN TROUBLE: Iroquois Ridge quarterback Dion Sterginits (with ball) is sacked by Milton District player Kaimen Obeng during yesterday's Halton junior Tier 3 football final in Hamilton. terback Zehan Jagosh escaped what seemed to be a sure sack, scrambled and threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to double the Milton lead to 14-0 heading into the half. Iroquois Ridge recovered an onside kick to open the second half and moved the ball down into field goal range but turned the ball over on downs. On its next possession, Ridge got down to the Milton oneyard line but its fourth-down pass was batted away. y The Trailblazers would get back into the game thanks to triplethreat Taylor Kurc. After recovering a Milton fumble on the Mustangs' 24-yard line, Kurc started a five-play touchdown drive with a 13-yard run. Barbot would cap the drive with a five-yard run. Milton would not allow another score, though, and chewed up almost all of the remaining time with a 10-play drive that resulted in the touchdown that sealed the victory. "It's tough," Kurc said of losing in the final for the second year in a row. "We knew it would be tough but we thought heart and hard work would get us through. We made some bad mistakes but we'll learn from it and try to get Iroquois Ridge back into football mode." Reeve is looking forward to that. "We had a hell of a season and I'm proud of these guys," he said. "We're building g a tradition." Blue Dogs win independent soccer title Local blueliner Percy Appleby College's junior boys' Division 1 soccer team recently won the Conference of Independent Schools Athletic Association playoff championship. Appleby defeated Upper Canada College 4-1 in the semifinals, then edged Crescent School 2-1 in the title game. Members of the Blue Dogs, who also won the CISAA regularseason crown, are Michael Saunders, Jackson Hayward, John Lanigan, Inder Sharma, A idan O'Brien, Mitchell Kothleitner, Akshay Abraham, Alexander Gutheil, Tanner Davies, Andrew Bai, Henry Jeon, Dong Seok Koh, Domenic Commisso, Quinn Sleeman, Konstantin, Parojcic, John MacAulay, Raza Malik, Julian Santini, Chris Bai and Colin Hill. Paul Shields and Jaime Williams coach the team. signs g with Leafs TOP DOGS: Appleby College's boys' soccer team won the Conference of Independent Schools Athletic Association playoff championship this season, defeating Crescent School 2-1 in the title game. The Blue Dogs also won the league's regular-season title. Stuart Percy has signed a contract with the National Hockey League team he's rooted for since he was a child. The local resident inked a three-year entry-level deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the club announced Tuesday. Percy, 18, was selected in the first round (25th overall) by the Leafs in this year's NHL Entry Draft. The defenceman is currently the captain of the Ontario Hockey League's Mississauga St. Michael's Majors. He ranks Stuart Percy fourth in team scoring with three goals and 14 assists in 18 games. Percy represented the OHL in this month's Canadian Hockey League Super Series against Team Russai. He also attended the Canadian national junior team selection camp and the Leafs' prospect camp this past summer.