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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, November 21, 2012 · 26 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR:JONKUIPERIJ Phone 905-632-0588 (ext. 294) email sports@oakvillebeaver.com Aquinas, King's bound for two OFSAA tourneys St. Thomas Aquinas and King's Christian Collegiate will each represent the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference at a pair of Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations tournaments this week. The Raiders will compete in the girls' basketball and boys' volleyball OFSAA double-A tournaments, which both get underway tomorrow (Thursday). King's will participate in the single-A girls' basketball and boys' volleyball competitions. The Aquinas basketball team qualified for OFSAA by winning a pair of challenge games last week. The Raiders (7-4 in Halton Tier 1 play this season before losing in the playoff quarter-finals) whipped Halton Tier 2 finalist Burlington Central 64-25, then dumped Peel's Brampton Ascension 48-40 in Brampton. Marisa Parsons and Madison Cvetas each scored 16 points against Ascension for Aquinas, which trailed its hosts in the fourth quarter. Parsons and Cvetas combined for 21 points in the final frame. Aquinas, seeded seventh for this year's tournament in Sault Ste. Marie, was a quarter-finalist at last year's OFSAA tournament. The Raiders volleyball team, meanwhile, is the 10th seed at its OFSAA competition in Stratford. Aquinas won the Halton championship last week, sweeping Iroquois Ridge 2-0 in the final. Appleby College will join Aquinas at the doubleA OFSAA competition. The Blue Dogs, representing the Conference of Independent Schools, are ranked 13th. King's is the ninth-ranked team at the girls' single-A volleyball tournament in Chatham and the 17th seed at the boys' volleyball competition in Belleville. The Cavaliers posted a 7-3 record in girls' basketball and a 6-4 mark in boys' volleyball during the Halton Tier 2 regular season. No OFSAA hoops for Loyola, Abbey Park Both of the Halton Tier 1 girls' basketball finalists were denied trips to their respective OFSAA tournaments. The two-time Halton champion Loyola Hawks lost their GHAC quad-A challenge game last week to St. Thomas More (a score from that game was not made available). The regional finalist Abbey Park Eagles went down to St. Mary's 50-35 in the triple-A GHAC challenge contest. ERIC RIEHL / OAKVILLE BEAVER / @HALTON_PHOTOG I'LL TAKE THAT: White Oaks Wildcats player Cole Nagy (in white) rips the ball away from Aldershot Lions quarterback Richard Males in the end zone for the opening touchdown of Monday's Halton senior Tier 3 football final in Hamilton. Nagy later added a punt return TD in the Wildcats' 21-6 win. Wildcats win wild senior Tier 3 football final By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR HAMILTON -- It certainly wasn't a game for football purists. But to the White Oaks Wildcats, it was a work of art. White Oaks earned its first Halton high school football title in more than 20 years Monday, defeating the Aldershot Lions 21-6 in a turnover-filled, penalty-plagued senior Tier 3 final at McMaster University. Neither team scored an offensive touchdown until the final minute, and the squads combined for 11 turnovers -- eight of them in the first half -- and 23 penalties. "It was sloppy," grinned the Wildcats' Cole Nagy, "but there were good plays in it." Nagy was fully responsible for two of those good plays, both resulting in unconventional touchdowns. Early in the second quarter with the score tied 0-0 and Aldershot backed up near its own goal line, Nagy closed in on unsuspecting Lions quarterback Richard Males and ripped the ball from Males' grasp as he tackled the Aldershot pivot in the end zone. Later in the game, after Aldershot had pulled to within 7-6, Nagy bounced off several would-be tacklers and shot down the right sideline for a 90-yard punt return TD. "Cole's probably our most aggressive player. He's not afraid to put his nose in there and hit somebody or take a hit," said the Wildcats' Calum Rabchuk. "We're all real proud of him." Rabchuk put the game out of reach with 39 seconds to go, running 15 yards for a touchdown. Harrison Hoole added his third convert of the game to make the score 21-6. The Wildcats finished the Halton season with an 8-0 record (including playoffs), outscoring its opposition 212-24 in those contests. White Oaks, one of the biggest schools in Halton, was in Tier 3 because of its struggles in recent years. The Tier 3 win means the Wildcats will be moved up to Tier 2 next season. "We've always had good players (at White Oaks), but we didn't have the depth. This year we were healthy enough and we had a lot more depth to give guys some rest so we were still fresh in the third and fourth quarters," Wildcats coach Nicholas Polasek said. "We started off the program with only 20 players a year, then 25, then 30. Now we have 40 and we're going in the right direction. Kids are coming out to football, which is not the way it used to be." Aldershot, the smallest high school in the region, was 4-2 during the regular season and had just 23 players dressed for Monday's final. Lions coach Aaron Bates was proud of the way his team overcame injuries and fatigue to hang with the Wildcats throughout the contest. "I'm pretty impressed with the guys. We had lots of guys playing with injuries, not to mention (White Oaks is) a better team, but our guys had so much heart," Bates said. "The punt return was really the tough thing for us. We were in it right before then." David Hunter scored the Lions' touchdown, returning a fumble 25 yards in the second quarter. Aldershot's convert attempt was blocked. Justin Martin intercepted two passes for the Wildcats, while Jordan Ogilvie and Rabchuk each picked off one. Spencer Peacock had two interceptions to lead the Aldershot defence. Polasek said the Wildcats' last Halton football championship at any level came in the late 1980s, an era when Al Tanner was coach at White Oaks and Mike Vanderjagt was the quarterback. Vanderjagt went on to become a place-kicker in the CFL and NFL, winning two Grey Cups during his career and making an NFL-record 86.5 per cent of his field goal attempts. -- Jon Kuiperij can be followed on Twitter @Beaversports