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www.insidehalton.com |OAKVILLE BEAVER |Thursday, November 16, 2017 |46 Kevin Nagel, Oakville Beaver Sports Editor, knagel@burlingtonpost.com Sports "Connected to your Community " Dream season for rugby Bruins Sheridan defeats S t Lawrence 3 1 -2 9 in OCAA men's final By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff As he hugged his teammate after a heart pounding win, Brandon Roberts' eyes filled with tears. "I was at Mohawk last year and I decided to play rugby in my second year and they didn't give me a shot at all. I thought I played OK, but I guess they didn't see anything," Roberts said. "So it was a real honour to come (to Sheridan) and get the chance to play." Roberts not only played, he filled the key No. 8 position for the Bruins in Sunday' s On tario Colleges Athletic Association final. Sheridan turned out to be the ideal home for the Oakville native. Few people would have given the Bruins any chance of playing for a championship at the beginning of the season. Sheridan entered the campaign hav ing never competed in a playoff game and never having won more than two games in a season. But the Bruins authored a remarkable turnaround, going 8-1 and capping their sea son with a thrilling 31 -2 9 victory over the St. Lawrence College Vikings in front of a home crowd in the OCAA championship game Sheridan led 3 1 -2 2 as the game went into stoppage time, but the Vikings' Vasko Alex ander bulled his way over the line to cut the lead to 31 -2 9 . Getting the ball back, St. Law rence moved deep into Sheridan territory, leaving no room for error. A bigger Vikings squad had dominated the scrums and at times just used its strength ad vantage to push a pile of bodies up the field. Just 15 yards from the try line, Sheridan could not let that happen again, nor could it afford a penalty that would have set up a potential game-winning kick. "We knew we had to come up real hard on defence and drive as hard as we could," said Bruins' captain Jad Hamade. "We had to win the ball back as quick as possible." W hen Sheridan did and the final whistle sounded, the league' s top scorer was over Sheridan Bruins' Tristian Hylton fights off St. Lawrence's Brandon Watts during the OCAA rugby championship game last Sunday. Sheridan held off the Vikings for a 31-29 win to claim its first provincial title. Hylton and Matt DaCosta, who each scored a try, were named championship all-stars. | photo by Graham Paine - Oakville Beaver whelmed. "I was speechless, it was just excitement rushing through m e," he said. "It's great. I'm so happy to win this with these boys." The man known as Hollywood to his teammates took on a starring role in Sunday's final. After the Bruins fell behind 10-0 in the first seven minutes, it was Hamade that got the Sheridan crowd back in the game with a penalty kick, a try and a convert in a sixminute span to tie the game. "He' s been a warrior since he came here," said Sheridan coach Rick Bria, who was named the OCAA coach of the year. "His first couple of years here he was injury rid den. This was the first time he played a full season and we saw what type of player he was -- very focused, very intense." That' s how Sheridan looked coming out of the half trailing 15-10. Matt DaCosta' s kick moved the Bruins deep into St. Lawrence terri tory. Owen Schimpl then swung wide to touch the ball down; Hamade' s convert from a tough angle hit the crossbar but bounced through to give Sheridan its first lead. Sheridan extended its advantage in the 57th minute when a St. Lawrence kick from the try line was blocked. Tristian Hylton pounced on it for a 24 -1 5 advantage. St. Lawrence answered back, cutting the lead to two, but DaCosta broke through three minutes later and Hamade' s fourth convert restored the nine-point advantage. Hamade said a renewed com m itm ent to practice, the game planning of the Bruins' coaching staff and recruiting all played a part in the turnaround. A month into the season, after Sheridan set a team record for points scored for the fourth straight week in a 7 3 -7 win over Rob erts' former team, Mohawk, he started to see the Bruins' potential. "That' s when we started to see that this was something special," said the Loyola grad. "That' s when we started to see as a unit, as a team, we could do anything." "I knew we were going to be good," said Hylton, his gold medal around his neck and the championship banner draped over his shoulders. "I didn't know we were going to be this good." Bria, in his first season as head coach af ter being an assistant since the program's in ception five years ago, worked to keep his players grounded during their new-found success with a one-game-at-a-time, onepractice-at-a-time philosophy. But with the championship secured, Bria took the time to take a broader look at what had been accomplished. "We lost our first game (in 2 0 1 2 ) by more than 100 points (1 0 4 -0 ) to Humber, but Car los (Moniz, the team' s former head coach) told them, `The only way this is a failure is if you don't show up for practice on Mon day.' And every Bruin was there," he said. "A couple of years ago, we were devastated so bad by Mohawk we didn't know if we would have enough players to continue. A lot of the credit has to go to those players. They got the crap beat out of them, but they were will ing to be part of the building process. It is as m uch the alumni' s success as it is ours." Sunday afternoon, they all shared in Sheri dan's first provincial rugby championship. scored for the Blades. Purboo stopped 16 shots for the shutout, lowering his goals-against average to 1.68. The rookie goaltender improved to 5-1-1 and has allowed two goals or less in six of seven starts. Oakville hosts back-to-back 7:30 p.m. games this weekend. The To ronto Patriots are at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex tomorrow (Friday)and Stouffville visits Saturday Elliotstops penalty shot, Aguanno scores lategoal togive Blades w in over NorthYork Chris Elliot made 29 saves, none bigger than the last one. Elliot stopped North York' s Nick Campoli on a penalty shot with three seconds to play to preserve the Oakville Blades' 2-1 win in last Sunday' s Ontario Junior Hockey League game. The Blades' Anthony Aguanno broke a 1-1 tie with less than five minutes to play in the second peri- od and Elliott stopped seven shots in the third to keep it that way. Spencer Kersten opened the scoring with a power-play goal for Oakville with four minutes to play in the opening period. North York spoiled Elliot' s shut out bid in the opening minute of the second. W ith its third straight win, the Blades increase their lead atop the South Division to three points with a record of 18-5-3. Last Saturday, eight players scored for Oakville and Christian Purboo record ed his first OJHL shutout in the Blades' 8-0 win over the Milton IceHawks. Jacob Buch, Kersten, M ack Gra ham and Matt Steen led the way with a goal and two assists each. Andrew McIntyre, Callum Jones, Ryan Derenzis and Teth Burles also