Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports T H I N K P I N K 17 | Wednesday, October 30, 2013 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com "Connected to your Community" OT seeded third at OFSAA field hockey Oakville Trafalgar is seeded third for the OFSAA field hockey provincial high school championships, which begin tomorrow (Thursday) in Waterloo. The Red Devils, who clinched their OFSAA spot last week with a 5-0 victory over Hamilton's Cardinal Newman in the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference semifinals, are pooled with Pickering, North Hastings and Toronto's Michael Power-St. Joseph. Sports Briefs Pool play begins tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. and concludes Friday morning. The quarter-finals will be contested Friday afternoon, with semifinals and medal games slated for Saturday. The Red Devils won the GHAC championship last Thursday, defeating the Nelson Lords 2-1 at Bronte Athletic Field. Nelson, which won provincial bronze last season, is seeded seventh at OFSAA. Rough weekend for Blades The Toronto Jr. Canadiens scored four third-period goals to defeat the Oakville Blades 4-2 Sunday in Ontario Junior Hockey League play. Oakville carried a 1-0 lead into the final frame but Toronto scored twice in a six-minute span to pull ahead 2-1, then added two more markers after the Blades tied the game 2-2 with 6:35 to go. Dalton Bew and Sean Kohler tallied for Oakville, and Evan Buitenhuis made 25 saves in a losing cause. Two nights earlier, the Blades were humbled 9-2 by the Buffalo Jr. Sabres at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex. Buffalo led 3-1 after the first period, then blew the game open with five goals in the second frame. Ross Sloan and Bew scored for the Blades. Brendan McGlynn took the loss in net, with affiliate player James Cyfko taking over in the third period. Oakville (7-7-1) will be home to the Whitby Fury Friday, one day after Halloween. The Blades are extending the Oct. 31 holiday by inviting fans to come to the game dressed in their costumes. Prizes will be awarded and children will receive treats as well. Game time is 7:30 p.m. Canada East tryouts being held at Sixteen Mile The team that will represent Canada East at next month's World Junior A Challenge is being selected this week at Oakville's Sixteen Mile Sports Complex. Twenty-seven Ontario Junior Hockey League players are attending the selection camp in hopes of wearing Canadian colours at the World Junior A Challenge, which will take place Nov. 4-10 in Yarmouth, N.S. Among the local residents trying out for Canada East are Oakville Blades defenceman Greg Campbell, Milton IceHawks goaltender Ben Blacker and Toronto Lakeshore Patriots blueliner Michael Prapavessis. St. Michael's Buzzers forward Ashur Elliot, also an Oakville resident, was selected to the tryouts but is not able to participate due to injury. Other Oakville connections to the camp include former Blades players Matt Alvaro and Rory Bell. The camp began Monday and will conclude Friday. Featuring pink colours on their uniforms and sticks, T.A. Blakelock Tigers player Victoria VanSickle (left) and Iroquois Ridge's Sam Cussen battle for possession of the ball in recent Halton high school girls' field hockey action. The contest was Ridge's annual pink field hockey game that supports breast cancer research and awareness. Many other schools in Halton also hosted pink games this month in support of the cause. | photo by Graham Paine -- Oakville Beaver -- @Halton_Photog Appleby College wins CAIS national soccer title by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver Staff The Appleby College Blue Dogs had already knocked off the tournament's top two seeds, but their job wasn't done yet. Appleby still needed one more victory to win the Canadian Association of Independent Schools boys' soccer championship. On the surface, it appeared to be a favourable matchup. The Blue Dogs' opponent in the final, Port Hope's Trinity College School, had competed all season in Tier 2 of the Conference of Independent Schools Athletic Association (going undefeated). Appleby, meanwhile, had finished second in Tier 1 with a 5-2 record. But when you're trying to win a national championship, there are no easy games. And coming off a tough semifinal just a few hours earlier, Ap- pleby could not afford to take any team for granted. "We thought, `We've come this far. There's no way we can let it slip away,'" said tournament MVP Ehimare Okoyomon, a Grade 11 student. "When Mike (Saunders, team captain) did his pregame speech, you could see it in everyone's eyes. We wanted the win and nothing less." Trinity College was not prepared to let its opportunity slip away either, though. With time winding down in the opening half, Appleby was awarded a free kick. Alex Gutheil sent the ball toward the corner and J.D. Ulanowski headed it home from six yards out just as the half drew to a close. Both teams would have their opportunities in the second half, but Saunders turned away Trinity's attempts to preserve the 1-0 victory and secure Appleby's first CAIS title since 1987. "It still comes as a bit of shock," the Grade 12 keeper said of the national title, "but it's a pretty good feeling." "I think the boys are still walking on clouds," said Appleby coach Tosh Macfarlane. Appleby headed to Armbrae Academy in Halifax as the 20-team tournament's sixth seed. After opening with a 2-0 victory over Bishop College School of Lennoxville, Que., Appleby played league rival Hillfield Strathallan College of Hamilton to a 1-1 draw. The Blue Dogs finsee Appleby on p.18