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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, November 20, 2015 | 22 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community" Magic number by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor Wearing borrowed jersey, OT fifth-year student scores two TDs to spur Red Devils to senior Tier 2 championship Oakville Trafalgar ball-carrier Riley Manning (left) evades St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders' Noah Worth during Wednesday's Halton high school senior boys' football Tier 2 final at McMaster University. Manning scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns in the Red Devils' 29-6 victory. | photo by Riziero Vertolli -- Oakville Beaver -- @Halton_Photog All-French school defied odds to reach Halton final by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver Staff In a season full of surprises, it was fitting that a meeting of two non-playoff teams with a combined record of 5-17 had the biggest impact in shaping how the post-season unfolded. Oakville's Sainte-Trinité, an all-French high school with the smallest student population in the Halton junior boys' volleyball league, had started the year with promise. In just its second season of competition, it won its first three matches and four of its first five. But a promising start by les Loups (Wolves) faded as they ended the regular season with six straight losses, though they pushed their opponent to a deciding set in half of those. With Sainte-Trinité sitting at 4-7, Burlington Central needed a win on the final day of the regular season to move into eighth place and bump les Loups from the playoffs. Central's opponent that day was the 1-9 Jean Vanier Knights. In a sign of things to come, Vanier pulled off the upset in three sets, helping Sainte-Trinité hold on to the final playoff berth and paving the way for a run that was a howling success. Sainte-Trinité went on to knock off the league's top two teams and reach its first-ever Halton final Monday at Sheridan College. It rallied from an 8-2 deficit in the deciding set, getting within a point before falling 15-12 to the Pearson Patriots in the Tier 2 championship. "We were hoping to win. It would have made our run that much more special," said Sainte-Trinité power Eric Cerentola, "but I'm still proud of what we accomplished." And with good reason. Sainte-Trinité is the only school in the Halton league with fewer than 400 students. In knocking off its namesake Holy Trinity in the quarter-finals for the three-year-old school's firstever playoff victory in any sport, Sainte-Trinité not only beat a team that was 10-1, but also one from a school with three times its enrolment. "For a new school, it does mean a lot to beat those bigger, well-established schools," said coach Michael Lefebvre. It did it in impressive fashion, too. Sainte-Trinité see Les on p.23 HAMILTON -- When football season ends at Oakville Trafalgar High School, players keep their jerseys. For fifth-year student Riley Manning, that means having five different uniforms to cherish. Well, maybe six. Having forgotten his No. 2 Red Devils jersey in his locker at school, Manning had to don No. 70 -- borrowed from an injured Grade 9 student on the team -- for Wednesday's Halton senior boys' Tier 2 football championship game at McMaster University. There were little digital effects. Manning scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns, including a long run on a fake punt, as the Red Devils defeated the St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders 29-6 to secure just OT's second Halton football championship since 2003. "It didn't matter what number I was wearing. People were asking me before, `Do you care?'" said Manning. "Now I just don't know what one to keep. No. 2 has been my number all season, but we win this game... I don't know." Neither of Manning's touchdowns came on designed plays. His first, which came two minutes after the Raiders' Nick Mardner scored on a brilliant 80-yard punt return to make the score 15-6, was a fake punt in which he was supposed to hand the ball off. Manning noticed a gap in the defence and Brett Switzer OT Red Devils defensive back kept the ball instead, sprinting 57 yards for the major. His second TD was a 32-yard reception from Red Devils quarterback Cale Cutcliffe. The play was intended to be a run, but when Manning noticed no OT running back had the ball, he stopped blocking down field and instead made himself open. After catching the pass from Cutcliffe, Manning followed the block of Jonathan Rego to the end zone to give OT a 29-6 advantage. On a day when the Red Devils defence surrendered less than 140 total yards, the 23-point lead was more than enough. "We had them shut down, locked down," said OT defensive back Brett Switzer, who drew rave reviews from Red Devils coach Guy D'Alesio for shutting down Mardner, Aquinas's deep threat on offence. "We knew who their big guns were and focused on them, putting them in double coverage to make sure they didn't get the ball." Switzer and Manning were among approximately 10 OT students who returned for a fifth year of high school for the purpose of winning a Tier 2 title. Both students said Wednesday they won't be returning for the second semester of school. "We had a lot of boys who felt last year we could have won it, that we left some plays on the field," said D'Alesio, whose team lost 10-7 in last year's semis to eventual Tier 2 champ Iroquois Ridge. "We had a good core of athletic leaders come back. We were training in June and then again on the first possible day in August. see STA on p.23 We had them shut down, locked down. We knew who their big guns were.