OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, August 13, 2009 · 26 26 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2009 Titans top Stamps again, advance to league final The Oakville Titans held their opponents to a single point in the first half and forced six turnovers as they advanced to the South Central Ontario Football League final with a 27-8 win over the Burlington Stampeders. The Titans handed the Stampeders their only loss of the regular season but Burlington still managed to finish in first place. However, the Titans denied them a chance to win the league championship by taking Sunday's semifinal at Nelson Stadium in Burlington. The Titans wasted little time putting the Stamps away, building a 20-1 advantage by half time. Burlington would close the gap with a third-quarter touchdown but Oakville answered back in the fourth to seal the victory. Ashton Rochester ran for two long touchdowns and Zack Secord, with help from an offensive line that opened holes and provided strong pass protection all game, pounded one through the middle for a TD. Artem Clement scored the Titans' other TD, hauling in a pass from Fabian Desantis. Kyle Sanson converted three of the majors while a twopoint conversion failed on the other. A.J. Singh paced the defence with two of the Titans four interceptions. Frank Simone and Michael Sparling also picked off passes while Te JON CURRIE / OAKVILLE BEAVER IN THE CLEAR: Ashton Rochester of the Oakville Titans breaks free for one of his two touchdowns, this one for 44 yards. Nguyen and Taha Abukar recovered Burlington fumbles. Keeping pressure on the Stamps quarterback helped lead to the turnovers and Oakville also recorded four sacks, one each by Matt Toppan, Sanson, Matt Thomson and Nguyen. The Titans will need another big victory on the opposition's home turf. They face the Hamilton Steel City Steelers in the SCOFL AAA championship game Saturday at Ivor Wynne Stadium. Game time is 5 p.m. JON CURRIE / OAKVILLE BEAVER TITANS PUT BOOTS TO STAMPS: Oakville Titans' kicker Kyle Sanson gets his kick away, avoiding the leaping block attempt of Khaddre Stewart-Wallace of the Burlington Stampeders. Oakville handed first-place Burlington its only loss of the South Central Ontario Football League season and continued to be the Stampeders' nemesis on Sunday, downing their neighbours 27-8 to advance to Saturday's league final in Hamilton. Russell, relay team set world record Hinchcliffe season-best second in Ohio Byron MacDonald, who coaches Colin Russell helped the Russell with the University of Canadian men's 4x200-metre Toronto Blues, on the school's freestyle relay team set a world website. "An international medal record Friday at the British is great, but it just means you Grand Prix in Leeds, England. were the best on that given day. Russell and teammates A world record means that no Stefan Hirniak, Brent Hayden one has ever been as good as and Joel Greenshields turned in you." a time of six minutes, 51.05 Canadian swimmers have seconds to take more than a established four short-course second and a half off the 2007 short-course record set by world records at the meet, including new standards in the men's Australia. and women's 4x100m relays. "It takes four guys to come Russell's sister, Sinead, won a together and believe in one Colin Russell pair of bronze medals in the common goal for a world record to happen in a relay," said Hayden on women's 50m and 100m backstroke. She had a time of 27.92 seconds in the the Swimming Canada website. `'We all knew we had a shot at it and when Colin got us off to 50m backstroke. That was just six-one hundredths of a second behind silver medalist such a great start it made us even hungrier." Russell swam the lead leg of the race in Alexandra Hooper of England. She had a time of 58.95 seconds to take 1:43.60. "A world record is the pinnacle," said the bronze in the 100m backstroke. Oakville's James Hinchcliffe turned in his best finish of the season, placing second at the Mid-Ohio 100. Hinchcliffe qualified second and finished behind pole-sitter James Davison in Sunday's Firestone Indy Lights race. It was his fifth podium finish of the season. "Being such a tough track to pass on, (the race was) probably a little bit processional," Hinchcliffe said in the post-race news conference. "We started catching (Davison), got within eight-10ths (of a second) and just couldn't close the gap after that. I think early on we probably were a match for him. I think I just used up so much of my tires running behind him." Hinchcliffe's finish moved him up to fifth place in the driver standings. With three races remaining, Hinchcliffe is 87 points behind series leader J.R. Hildebrand, who finished third on Sunday. While Hildebrand may be tough to catch, the 22 year old is still in the running for the rookie of the year title. Sebastian Saaverdra leads that race with 357 points while Hinchcliffe has 333. The previous week in Kentucky, Hinchcliffe held his first lead on the Indy Lights circuit. He eventually slipped back to third before a spin with two laps remaining dropped him to seventh. The next race is Aug. 23 in Sonoma, California. James Hinchcliffe