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www.insidehalton.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, May 2 5 , 2 0 1 7 |40 Titan senior girls beat defending champ Notre Dame; host GHAC AAA semifinal today vs. Bishop Ryan Holy Trinity's Alexa Suarez (in black) battles for possession with Notre Dame's Laura Hansen in Thursday's Halton senior girls' soccer final. HolyTrinity scored three unanswered goals to win 3-1. | photo by Herb Garbutt - Oakville Beaver By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff It had been four years since their last Halton senior girls' soccer title, but for the Holy Trinity Titans it felt like a lifetime. "It feels amazing, especially to do it in Grade 12; it's such a great feeling," said Trinity defender Me gan Rykhoff after her team's 3-1 victory over the defending cham pion Notre Dame Fighting Irish. "It's not the first time we've been down but that just makes us work that much harder." Rykhoff was talking about the Titans' three unanswered goals to overcome an early deficit in Thurs day's final, but she could have just as easily been talking about the team's recent history. Over the past four years, Trinity has just one regular-season loss, going 13-1-7. But over that same span the Titans had just one play off victory. Avoiding another early playoff exit provided all the moti vation the team needed. After tying Christ the King in the season opener, Trinity won its next four, outscoring opponents 18-2. The Titans then exacted a little revenge with a 3-2 quarter final win over Loyola, the team that ended each of their last two seasons. Trinity got goals from Alexa Miller and Mari Young as it topped Bishop Reding 2-1 in the Halton semifinals to advance. "It's been a long time coming," said Trinity coach Peter Bonfiglio. "We had a lot of (Grade) 11s returning and some younger girls coming up from the junior squad." With the additions from last year's Halton junior champion ship team, Bonfiglio said Trin ity could again build a team that contends for the provincial title on an annual basis. The Titans earned OFSAA silver in 2011 be fore claiming the provincial title in 2012, then advanced to the OFSAA playoff round the follow ing year. One player who could figure prominently in another Trinity powerhouse is Young, who scored twice and set up the winning goal in the Halton final. "Mari was a difference maker," Notre Dame coach Casey Downey said of the Grade 10 student. "She significantly affected the game to day." Young, who plays on Burling ton's Ontario Provincial Develop ment League under-16 team, tied the game after Notre Dame opened the scoring. In the opening minute of the second half she carried the ball in from the right corner before sending a cross to Asia Navalta, who made no mistake converting for the go-ahead goal. "Our defence is really strong so we just had to keep our compo sure," Young said of the early defi cit. "Once we tied it, we knew we could get the next goal." Trinity's defence allowed just seven goals in seven league games and was even more impressive in tournaments, allowing just one goal total in winning three events -- at the Hershey Centre in Missis sauga, Sheridan College and their own tournament. Trinity keeper Eilidh Major would hold Notre Dame at bay to preserve the lead. She outraced Mi randa Badovinac to the ball to deny the Irish's dangerous striker a scor ing opportunity and later came out to bat away Badovinac's crossing attempt. Young would put the game away with three minutes to play Chas ing down the ball deep in Irish ter ritory, she deked the Notre Dame goalie and fired it home from a bad angle, getting the ball just over the line before an Irish defender could clear it. While the play demonstrated Trinity's skills, Rykhoff said it was applying those skills into a team concept that made the difference for the Titans this year. "We're all individually skilled," said the Trinity captain, "but we worked well together and we were a lot closer this year." Holy Trinity will host Bishop Ryan in a Golden Horseshoe Athlet ic Conference AAA semifinal game today (Thursday) at 1:30 p.m. JU LY 4TH-7TH // FROM 9AM-3PM FATHER M ICHAEL G O ETZ SEC O N D A R Y MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO " BOY * * kND G IR L S 7-16 C O S T : $259 INCLUDES: CAMP TSHIRT, BASKETBALL &WATER BOTTLE tfimketbaU taw/iaLv--------------------------------------- R E G IS T E R // WWW.44HOOPS.CAM P <