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The Oakville Beaver, W ednesday O c to b e r 17, 2001 - D1 Sportslfetecb NISSAN m Fleet OAKVILLE % 616 York St. Oakville Bob McIntosh Direct: 905-82 7-7 191 We lease .ill m akes and models. An Oakville Beaver Feature Editor: NORM NELSON Phone:845-3824, e x t 255 Fax:337-5567 E-mail:n n e ls o n @ h a lto n s e a rc h .c o m Photos by Barrie Erskine LEFT PHOTO: the `Horns special team s, including #32 Luc Roberge, m ake the tackle on a kick-off. RIGHT PHOTO: W ayne Sliw inski, led the team with 5.5 tackles and h e's in on this one. Longhorns defend national title By Norm Nelson BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR [ruth be told, the Oakville Longhorns season probably ended a little too perfectly as they easily defended their national sen ior men's football title 41-0 against the Calgary Wolfpack on Sunday. In a rainy, mud bowl at Nelson Stadium in Burlington, it looked for a brief time that the undermanned west ern challengers, sporting only 27 play ers, would make a game of it, down only 7-0 after the first quarter. By halftime, however, the 'Horns had turned the western contenders for the national title into pretenders by forging a 28-0 lead, and extending it to . 38-0 after three quarters. The Calgary Wolfpack, strictly speaking, were pretenders, filling in for the cross town Calgary Thunder who had earned a berth in the national final by following an undefeated 10-0 route similar to the 'Horns. The Thunder, however, backed out when some last minute sponsorship apparently fell through. That, of course, didn't sit too well with the 'Horns who basically reached into their own pocketbooks to head to Winnipeg last year to capture the 2000 Canadian Senior Football Oakville kicker calls it a career after winning 2nd straightNFC scoring title Dana Segin always threatened to follow O akville's proud trad itio n o f great kickers, including M ike Vanderjagt o f the Indianapolis Colts and Steve Christie, the Buffalo B ill's all-tim e leading scorer who was uncer em oniously let go this season. Segin had been to numerous CFL camps, just failing to stick. This year, though, he declined a CFL training camp invi tation, instead opting to stick with his day job, while at the same time suiting up once again for the `Horns. And he ended up once again defending his NFC scoring title. A three-peat, however, is apparently not in the works with some surprising news from the 30-year-old kicker following Sunday's national championship win. "It's a good way for me to go out," he related. "I'm pretty much calling it quits. I had a lot of fun playing football. I think it's my time. I've had a good career and I've really enjoyed it." The news caught `Horns coach Tony Molnar off guard, calling him "the best kicker in Canada not on a CFL team." "By far, No question at all," said coach Molnar. "That's an easy- to-say statement. We have faced over the years, American teams, Canadian teams, and by far at this level he's the best." Segin, meanwhile, was pleased to exit with another nation al tide. "They (the Wolfpack) came out and they started throwing the ball real well and they put a scare into us. "I knew that they'd be a good team and then, you saw it, the (`Horns) special teams just took over. "That was Mike's (Dingsdale) first time returning punts, that was the first time this season and he gets two for touch downs. It was great." League(CSFL) title 42-14 over the Winnipeg Senior Mustangs. The Wolfpack offered to fill the breach. Although they had an off-year, this season -- with a 7-3 record and an upset semifinal loss in their Alberta league -- they are a storied franchise. They have won seven Alberta champi onships including the previous two in 2000, and `99. And in `99, they won the inaugural CSFL championship (although Ontario was not involved). In 2000, they played for the right to play the `Horns in the CSFL champi onship, but lost to the Winnipeg Senior Mustangs. And full credit to them. Hey, they're just family men and blue collar workers, like the `Horns, who just love the game, so much that (See 'Horns' page D3) Knighton' s hat-trick helps put Blades back on winning track By Norm Nelson BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR Blades schedule UPCOM ING GAMES: Fri, Oct. 19, 7:45 p.m., Brampton at Oakville Tues, Oct. 23,7:30 p.m., Oakville at Mississauga Fri, Oct. 26, 8 p.m., Oakville at Milton Sun, Oct. 28, 7 p.m., Georgetown at Oakville Mon, Oct. 29, 8:15 p.m., Oakville at Buffalo * Photo by Ron Kuzyk Chris Knighton (#25) is on the move here in Friday's 7-5 loss to Streetsville. Knighton said the Blades had a let-down after jum ping into a quick 2-0 lead. They bounced back on Sunday with a 6-3 win over Bramalea with Knighton net ting the hat-trick. Blades are in action Friday night, hosting first place Brampton. Chris Knighton is causing his dad to loose a bit of hair. Well, actually, it's his father's goatee that could be in jeopardy following Chris Knighton's hat-trick in Sunday's exciting 6-3 win over Bramalea Blues at Ice Sports Oakville. The Blades, who host second place Brampton Capitals (9-3) this Friday, 7:45 p.m. at Ice Sports Oakville, improved to 6-5 on the young provin cial junior A season. "Yeah, last year, we had this thing," explained Knighton after Sunday's game. "He did take it off, so this year, he's got to do it again, I guess." Knighton capped off the hat-trick in the final minute into an empty net. It was just his night as his spin-arama deep in his own zone found noth ing but net (and thankfully not an icing call). "I just turned and fired," he said. "I was aiming for the net somewhere, but I just wanted to get it down the ice." On both of his other goals, he was Johnny-on-the-spot at the side of the net, ready to bang in some gift passes. "Both of my goals were set up by Marc Pinizzotto. It was all him, basical ly. I was at the right place at the right time. He did all the work and I just put it in the net." A little modest, for sure, as it's a knack in itself to be in the right spot. And the real estate he had staked out Oakville games a t Ice Sports Oakville. RECENT RESULTS: Oct. 14, Oakville 6, Bramalea 3 Oct. 12, Streetsville 7, Oakville 5 Oct. 9, Oakville 7, Streetsville 3 Oct. 7, Oakville 7, Burlington 5 Oct. 5, Oakville 3, Mississauga 1 can be dangerous turf. The Blades showed fortitude after having a 3-1 lead early in the third peri od erased by a surging Blues squad. The Blades regained the momentum in this fast paced, hard hitting and excit ing game just prior to the mid point of the third period when a minor dust-up resulted in Oakville enjoying a power play for the final three-minutes of a five-minute major. Oakville took full advantage with two goals on that same power play to make it 5-3. The fourth goal was scored by Knighton and the fifth goal was scored by Will Barlow, which was list ed as unassisted but was set up from a rebound by a blistering Matt Ruberto point shot. Oakville held period leads of 2-0 and 3-1. The Blades first goal was also on the power play, by Mike Ruberto. Geoff Aselstine got the second Blades goal just moments later on a combination (See 'Blades' page D3) W iA r A U jlM i ' A -1UU Duniluj* iJi. E. h 'w .L 4 i L lu iM . - i i i L tii-1 1 -llV ..lL w w L t a . l l- C j M L SuL 7ciu^:ui