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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, April 25, 2014 | 28 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports T H E H U N T E D "Connected to your Community" Oakville players chase PWHL silver with OWHA gold by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver Staff Oakville Trafalgar Red Devils player Brodie Turner (in red) is chased by a pack of Holy Trinity Titans during Wednesday's Halton high school senior girls' rugby game at Bronte Athletic Field. The Red Devils, who downed Trinity 33-0, opened the season as Ontario Rugby's top-ranked senior girls' high school team, based on panels of high school coaches from across the province. OT won Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AAA/AAAA gold two years ago but was upset in the second round of last year's tournament. | photo by Nikki Wesley -- Oakville Beaver -- @Halton_Photog Artificial turf helps students spring into action by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor One of the harshest winters in recent memory hasn't delayed the Halton high school spring sports season. In fact, with some leagues getting underway three days ago, the spring campaign might have begun earlier than ever. "You're the third person to ask me that," Halton Secondary School Athletic Association convener Darrin Curtis said. "It's been this week for the last three years, at least, but we normally start on a Thursday. This year we started on a Tuesday, just out of necessity, to get everything in." Making it all possible is the recent influx of artificial turf fields in Halton, since area municipalities don't typically issue permits for grass fields until the first week of May. All 24 soccer and rugby games Tuesday were played on synthetic surfaces, as were 15 more on Wednesday. Each Catholic high school in Halton now features at least an artificial turf field, and several public high schools also have them. Northwest Burlington's new City View Park and Oakville's North Park and Bronte Athletic Field were additional venues for games this week. "We probably have more (artificial turf fields at our disposal) than any other board in the province," Curtis We probably have more (artificial turf fields) than any other board. said. Due to deadlines for Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations tournaments, most HSSAA regularseason schedules need to be concluded before the end of May. Several teams played two games on Wednesday in a tournament-style format, a necessity to ensure a balanced schedule in sports contested at the OFSAA level. "If it's above zero and it's not snowing and it's not Darrin Curtis HSSAA convener sideways rain, away we go," Curtis said. "That's the way it's got to be." see Baseball on p.30 A week after suffering a heartbreaking overtime loss, Alysia DaSilva wrapped up her pre-college career on a much more positive note. The Oakville netminder captured the Ontario Women's Hockey Association intermediate AA title with Mississauga Chiefs. Mississauga defeated the Toronto Aeros 5-2 in the gold-medal game at provincials. DaSilva won an OWHA bronze medal two years ago and earned a silver last year before capping off her Chiefs career with a gold. "It was awesome," said the Princeton-bound goalie. "To end it off on a good note was incredible. We didn't get that chance (in the Provincial Women's Hockey League final)." The previous week in the PWHL championship game, the Chiefs lost 2-1 to Whitby in double overtime despite a 49-save performance by DaSilva. Two assists for Agnew Also helping Mississauga claim the gold was Oakville's Lindsay Agnew, who set up a pair of goals in the OWHA gold-medal game. "We were pushing so hard for the final game to make our season memorable," she said. "We played our hearts out." Toronto struck first in the opening minutes of the game but Mississauga answered back with two quick goals. "Once they got that goal, we knew we had to pick up the pace," Agnew said. Agnew helped spark a rally in Mississauga's 3-2 semifinal win over Durham West. With the Chiefs trailing 2-0 in the second period, she scored the first of three unanswered Chiefs goals. DaSilva blanked the Lightning in the third and Mississauga scored twice to advance to the final. For Agnew, it was her first OWHA gold, having settled for silver in her previous trip to the final as a bantam. After opening the tournament with a 2-1 loss to Nepean, Mississauga battled back to shut out Kingston 3-0 and then downed the Oakville Hornets 3-1. Mississauga topped Kitchener-Waterloo 5-3 in the quarter-finals. The Hornets went 1-1-1 at the OWHA tournament. Oakville tied Kingston 1-1 in its opener and blanked Kanata 1-0 before falling to Mississauga in its final round-robin game. Oakville advanced to the playoff round where the Hornets were shut out 4-0 by Bluewater. -- Herb Garbutt can be followed on Twitter @Herbgarbutt