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28 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR:JONKUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2012 Abbey Park girls earn first rugby title By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLEBEAVERSTAFF STEVEN DER-GARABEDIAN / SPECIAL TO THE OAKVILLE BEAVER LION TAMER: Aldershot Lions player Cassidy Cross (left) stretches in an attempt to tackle Abbey Park ball-carrier Sasha Guay during Wednesday's Halton senior girls' rugby Tier 2 final in Burlington. Guay scored a try for the Eagles in a 17-7 win as Abbey Park claimed its first-ever girls' rugby crown. Feisty Raiders denied in junior girls' final By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLEBEAVERSTAFF BURLINGTON -- Madison Cvetas is looking down at the baby finger on her left hand. It looks okay, until about the first knuckle, where it bends to the left away from the rest of her fingers. She's willing to admit that a trip to the doctor is probably in order. Her finger took its abrupt detour in the first half of Wednesday's Halton junior girls' rugby final at Burlington's Sherwood Forest Park, but she continued to play on. "I'm not even sure (how it happened). I think it was when I was tackling someone," she says. "I'll be okay, I'm tough." The same could be said of her St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders teammates. Heading into the final, the Raiders looked to be decided underdogs. Aquinas went 3-3 while its opponents, the Georgetown Rebels, were undefeated. Upon a closer look, though, Aquinas wasn't nearly the pushover as the records might have suggested. Both regular-season meetings between the teams were decided by a single score -- Aquinas lost 19-15 to Georgetown May 8 and then 22-17 a week later. Looking to turn those close games in their favour Wednesday, the Raiders' stingy defence -- which blanked Holy Trinity 12-0 in last week's semifinal -- provided several goal-line stands. The Rebels would finally break through for two tries in a span of four minutes, however, and then hold off a determined Aquinas squad for a 17-12 victory. "We're two really evenly-matched teams. We both had our chances," said Aquinas coach Chris Alderson. "(Georgetown) finished first, so obviously they're a good team and unfortunately we came up a bit short today." Still, Alderson had nothing but positives to say about the way his team held off Georgetown until the See Aquinas, page 29 BURLINGTON -- If anyone could appreciate how far the Abbey Park Eagles have come, it's Haley Thomson. Since the Grade 12 student was a member of the school's first girls' rugby team four years ago, she has seen the team progress from the first year when the players were learning the rules and the basic skills of the sport. So Thomson took extra delight in watching the Eagles win the Halton Tier 2 senior girls' championship Wednesday with a 17-12 victory over the Aldershot Lions at Burlington's Sherwood Forest Park. It's a win Thomson, the lone four-year member of the team, believes will help encourage other girls to take up the sport. But she understands there is still a reason girls shy away from rugby. "Injuries seem to scare girls away, and unfortunately, I don't really help that," "I wanted to try she said from a wheelchair in the middle something new and of the field with her gold medal draped as I learned the game, around her neck. Thomson was reduced to the role of a I found I had a love spectator for her final high school rugby for the sport. We worked game after breaking her ankle late in so hard the last four Monday's 12-5 semifinal win over Notre years and we came close Dame. Despite the injury, Thomson said a couple of times, so to she had no regrets about playing rugby. "I wanted to try something new and as win it is amazing." I learned the game, I found I had a love for the sport," she said. "We worked so Abbey Park senior girls' hard the last four years and we came rugby player Haley Thomson close a couple of times, so to win it is amazing." Abbey Park opened the scoring with a try by Emily McPhee 10 minutes into Wednesday's contest. Eight minutes later, Sasha Guay broke free for a long run before cutting back to the middle of the field and dodging two more tacklers to touch the ball down between the posts and set herself up for the convert. Guay, now in her third season, said like Thomson, she was looking for a new sport to try. "It was just how different it was," she said. "I like hockey and it's a contact sport, so I thought this would be fun, and it's great to see how we came together and how tight all the girls are." In addition to exposing the players to a new sport, the team also had the unique opportunity to travel to England in March and train with a team in Bath. "That was unbelievable," Guay said. "It was so nice of them to take the time to teach us the game. It was very useful." Though Aldershot cut Abbey Park's lead to 12-7 before the half, the Eagles pushed their way deep into Lions' territory early in the second half. They were finally rewarded when Darlene Coyle dove across the line to increase their advantage to 17-7, a lead that would hold up despite late pressure and a try by Aldershot. "Two years ago it was the same two teams in the final (Aldershot won 8-0)," said Eagles coach Heather Weston. "This definitely helps build the program and hopefully gives the other girls the chance to play." -- Herb Garbutt can be followed on Twitter @Herbgarbutt