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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, August 15, 2014 | 16 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports S O C C E R over Mimico before falling 12-9 to Oshawa. The Lady Hawks bounced back to edge Toronto Beaches 5-4 before pulling off another upset, an 11-8 semifinal win over Owen Sound, a team that had beat the Lady Hawks in all three of their previous meetings. In its 9-7 win in the final, Oakville got goals from Sarah Davies, Annika Perrino, Abby Whitworth and Carina DiAntonio. It was an end to the season that even Whitworth could not have imagined. Though the coach said the Lady Hawks had seven players "as good as any team in the league," he and fellow coaches Stephen Taylor and Cindy Durham focused on raising the level of the newcomers to the game. "It was a true development year," Whitworth said. "We made it a mission to have fair play and play everyone equally. We didn't shorten the bench until the second half of the last two games." The Lady Hawks focused on skill development, focusing on the basics of picking up loose balls, passing, catching and cradling the ball. An athletic and very coachable group of players continued to improve as the season progressed. "We didn't even get around to tactics and lacrosse strategies until half way through the season," Whitworth said. "It was a steep learning curve." He said the older players did a great job involving the younger see First on p.17 "Connected to your Community" S C H O L A R S U11 Lady Hawks surprise with provincial lacrosse title win by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver Staff The outcome seemed inevitable. On one side, there was Oshawa, a team that had not lost a game in three years. On the other, the Oakville Lady Hawks, a squad featuring nine first-time players -- almost half its roster. When the teams met in the second game of the season, Oshawa cruised to an 11-4 win. The teams would meet three more times over the course of the season, each game ending with an Oshawa victory, including a 12-9 win in round-robin play at provincials. So few were surprised when Oshawa jumped out to a 6-2 lead at halftime in the gold-medal game at the provincial girls under-11 field lacrosse championships recently in Brampton. But then Oakville came out for the second half and scored two quick goals. And then another. And another. The Lady Hawks scored seven straight goals on their way to a 9-7 victory and their first-ever provincial title. "I would venture to say that teams didn't see the best of us until the gold-medal game," said Oakville coach Dave Whitworth, whose team entered provincials with a 7-7-2 record. "To see where they started to where they finished, it was a rewarding, fulfilling experience, and one the players can be really proud of." Oakville went 4-1 at provincials, opening with a 15-5 win Oakville Soccer Club awarded eight of its university-bound players with scholarships last week during a luncheon at Glen Abbey Golf Club. Keynote speaker Clare Rustad, who played for the Canadian women's soccer team at the 2008 Olympics and is a member of the national organizing committee for the 2015 Women's World Cup, shared stories of her career and advice for the scholarship winners. Pictured from left, OSC scholarship recipients included Tashiana Lusterio (University of Toronto), Ian de Souza (Queen's), Sean Brooks (Wilfrid Laurier), Claire Wilkinson (Laurentian), Christopher Lang (Waterloo), Taylor Kleine Hermelink (McMaster) and Arielle Zamdvaiz (Dalhousie). Not present for the photo was Max Nease (Carleton). | photo by Eric Riehl -- Oakville Beaver -- @Halton_Photog National peewee crown earned in hostile territory Having won the last five national peewee lacrosse titles, Ontario had to be considered the favourite heading into Saturday's gold-medal game against British Columbia. But not in the hearts of the majority of the people in New Westminster, B.C.'s Queen's Park Arena. "Except for our parents, I think everyone in the arena was (rooting) for B.C.," said Ryan Brooks. "And sometimes the refs, too," added Owen Sage. Regardless of what factors were working against it, Ontario built an early lead and then continued to play dominant defence on its way to an 8-2 victory that made national champions of Oakville's Brooks, Sage, Chris Dong and Tyler Ford. "To win that game on the road in that kind of environment, that spoke volumes about how well they did," said Oakville resident Troy Cordingley, who served as an assistant coach on the provincial squad. "They did an exceptional job." Dong scored the second Ontario goal and Ford set up the third as Ontario took a 3-0 lead. B.C. got one back, but Brooks took a nice feed from Sage to restore the three-goal edge early in the second and Ontario never looked back. see Ontario on p.17 What are you crowdfunding for? .com fuellocal.com is an online platform to raise money through crowdfunding: an opportunity for a collection of individuals to make donations in support of a cause. Create your fundraising campaign or help fund local initiatives at fuellocal.com Start your campaign now!