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10 Independent & Free Press, Tuesday,March 16, 2010 SPORTS & LEISURE Blades cut down Raiders By EAMONN MAHER Staff Writer The Georgetown Raiders' number came up again over the weekend, and the Oakville Blades were all over it for the third year in a row. The host Blades posted a 6-2 victory Friday night to eliminate the Raiders in five games in their best-of-7 Ontario Jr. A Hockey League semifinal series. While the first four contests in the battle of the Halton arch enemies were in doubt until the final buzzer, the Blades broke up a 2-2 tie midway through game five's middle period with four unanswered goals to earn a spot in the OJAHL finals against defending league-champion Kingston. "It's tough to blame anyone or throw anybody under the bus right now. Oakville was just better than us and they deserved it," said Raiders' head coach and general manager James Richmond, who pointed to game three in Oakville as the pivotal point in the series, when Georgetown gave up a 4-1 third-period lead. "You're up by three and have a chance to get a foothold, and they come back and got a huge momentum swing in the series." In game four Wednesday, the Blades carried a 3-1 lead into the third period before Georgetown's Jeremy Wick connected for a pair of goals four minutes apart to tie the score. But Oakville veteran sniper Kellan Lain batted in a rebound for the winning marker with just over six minutes remaining in regulation and the visitors added a late empty-netter. Steve Perfetto had the other Raider goal. Kingston defeated the Trenton Golden Hawks 4-1 in their semifinal series. It figures to be an off-season of big changes in Raiderland and Richmond isn't sure if he'll be back for a fifth campaign. Leading scorer Wick and the versatile Kyle Essery have scholarships to St. Lawrence University for next season, while captain Chris Borges plans to play professionally in Europe. Goalie Tony Capobianco (Canisius College), defender Reid Lesswing and forwards Dorian Peca and Sean Teakle are graduating 20-year-olds. "We're probably losing 12 or 13 guys again and we seem to do that every year," Richmond added. "I guess we're doing something right with the number of players we're developing and who are moving on, but it's tough to bring in that many new kids year after year. There are all kinds of rumours out there and I don't know what's going to happen." Georgetown District High School's senior girls' volleyball team placed second at last week's OFSAA AAAA championship tournament in Barrie. Team members (front, from left) are: Haley Besworth, Hillary Banks, Sarah Chapin, Tory McCracken. Middle row: Holly Bigg, Lindsay Poulton, Rhianna Malcolm, Courtney Keast. Back row: Head coach Kyle Stewart, Chantelle Tanguay, Nicole Arthurs, Maggie Darling, Chelsea Briscoe, Taylor Harding, assistant coach Sheri Nairn. Submitted photo Rebels find OFSAA's silver lining Nearly pulling off an incredible comeback in the final, the Georgetown Rebels had to settle for silver medals at the provincial high school senior girls' volleyball championships last week in Barrie. The Rebels had lost just once all season and were the third seed heading into the 16-team OFSAA AAAA tournament. After sweeping through the preliminary round, the Rebels defeated Aurora in the quarterfinals and dominated second-ranked Sinclair of Whitby in the semis-- the only team to have beaten GDHS this year. Facing the top-seeded Forest Heights Trojans from Kitchener in the championship match, the GDHS seniors dropped the first two games 25-15, 25-19, before putting together a big rally in front of a boisterous Rebel cheering section. Georgetown won game three 25-17 and survived three match points by Forest Heights in set four to prevail 27-25, forcing the tiebreaker in the best-of-5 final. With the Rebels leading 6-2 at one point in the fifth set, fatigue and some bad bounces appeared to give the Trojans an opening and they surged to a 15-10 triumph. "It was a tough one to lose, but to go 5-1 at OFSAA and be number two in the province, there's nothing to be ashamed of or saddened about," said GDHS head coach Kyle Stewart. "To be down 2-0 in the final and come back like that is a testament to our girls' drive and ability. Exhaustion played a part in that fifth game, where we were tired and excited and (Forest Heights) was able to get some fortunate points and we lost the momentum that we had." Stewart said it will be difficult to replace the graduating seniors such as setter Tory McCracken, middle Sarah Chapin, power hitter Rhianna Malcolm and libero Hillary Banks. Georgetown's senior girls last won an OFSAA volleyball championship in 1996. GEORGETOWN JUNIOR "A" A sombre group of Georgetown Raiders await the handshake ceremony with members of the Oakville Blades after the Raiders fell 6-2 Friday in Oakville, losing the bestof-7 series 4-1. Photo by Eamonn Maher GEORGETOWN TOYOTA GAME OF THE WEEK THANKS FOR A GREAT YEAR RAIDERS! www.georgetownraidersjra.com