The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday May 31, 2006 - 29 IN CLOSE: Unidentified members of the Nelson Lords (in white) and Loyola Hawks try to gain possession of the ball near the Nelson goal during Friday's Halton high school senior boys' AAA soccer final in Burlington. Opportunities like this near the Nelson goal were difficult to come by for the Hawks, who were blanked 1-0. RON KUZYK / OAKVILLE BEAVER Wet ball a factor in Trinity triumph Continued from page 28 Controversial goal costs Hawks in AAA boys' final A controversial goal by the Nelson Lords was the difference as the Loyola Hawks senior boys' soccer team dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker in Friday's Halton AAA soccer final. "After reviewing the game film, it was definitely offside," Loyola coach, Reno Malisa said of the winning marker after watching the game filmed by Cogeco. However, Malisa didn't want to blame the officiating for the loss. "It was not one of our finer efforts. I thought we carried the play, but we just couldn't score." The loss ends the season for the young Hawks squad, one game short of qualifying for OFSAA, despite solid efforts Friday from Steve DaSilva and keeper Alex Conti. Though the Hawks came up one win short of the Halton title, Malisa is still pleased with his team's season. "We played fairly well for most of the year with a young team," Malisa said. "I'm definitely satisfied with the effort this year." Malisa hopes that his squad will learn from the experience that it gained this year and take the next step into OFSAA next year. -- Matt Civak, Special to the Beaver but the speed that the free kick was hit with (made it) hard to grab. Maybe a drier ball would have been caught." Despite the fact that they were down at halftime, the Titans never felt like they were out of the game. "We thought we had a lot of momentum after the first half and we carried that into the second half and scored a goal early," Trinity player David Ortega said. "That pretty much carried us through the rest of the game." The game was played aggressively by both teams, resulting in numerous fouls and several yellow cards. The aggression came to a head when Notre Dame was looking for an equalizing goal midway through the second half and a Fighting Irish player collided hard with the Titans keeper, Max Lubric, nearly resulting in a melee. Lubric needed to be restrained by teammates after getting back to his feet, keeping the situation under control. Near the end of the first half, things seemed to start turning in favour of the Titans, just as Holy Trinity students were bused to the game to support their team. "That was kind of per request of some of the students on our team," Titans co-coach Dan Seixeiro said of the fan buses. "I think we had about five fan buses and they definitely helped out. As soon as you hear a crowd behind you for a big tackle or a big goal, it just forces you to get up for the game." If victorious yesterday, Trinity will travel to Toronto June 5-7 for the provincial AAAA championships. Buzz still perfect at midway point of Jr. B lacrosse season So far, the Oakville Buzz is a perfect 10. The local junior B lacrosse club won a pair of games last weekend with relative ease, hitting the midway point of the Ontario Lacrosse Association season with a 10-0 mark. Stretch SPORTSBRIEFS Oakville started slowly Friday in Milton, scoring only once in the first period against the struggling Mavericks, but exploded for seven markers in the middle frame to triumph 12-2. Sean Thomson sparked the Buzz with a five-point effort (goal, four assists), while Josh Smyth notched a hat trick. Brenden Thenhaus and Brian Rea each scored twice, with Chris Moulson, Mike Bentivegna and Jordan MacIntosh netting singles. Sunday at Maplegrove, the Buzz again scored seven times in the second period to double the Mimico Mountaineers 14-7. Thomson had two goals and six helpers, while Thenhaus had three goals and three assists. Rea and Smyth each had five-point afternoons, with Justin Wilson-Kirby, Chris Corbeil, Reed Board and Moulson also tallying. Six points clear of the second-place Halton Hills Bulldogs in the South East Division, the Buzz will likely face its stiffest test of the season this Friday when it hosts the Clarington-based Green Gaels. The Gaels (7-3) and Buzz will face off at Maplegrove Arena at 8 p.m. weekend, winning his second and third World Cup gold medals of the year. The Loyola grad and Burloak Canoe Club product finished first in both the men's kayak singles 1,000-metre and 500m races at the competition, held in Duisburg, Germany. "I'm a little bit surprised with my start this season," van Koeverden told reporters. "I've put a lot more focus on the technique. I had a great start last year but didn't do as well as I wanted at the worlds, (and) this year I've built a plan to keep at the top until the end of the season." Last weekend also marked Canada's first international victory in the men's fours kayak event. Another honour for Tavares John Tavares notched another major coup following his impressive inaugural season in the Ontario Hockey League, being named the Canadian Hockey League's rookie of the year last Friday. The 15-year-old St. Thomas Aquinas student scored 45 goals and assisted on 32 others for the Oshawa Generals en route to also winning the OHL's rookie-of-the-year award. "I'm definitely very proud of myself," said Tavares. "Hopefully, I can continue being successful next season and help (the Generals) become a winner." CHL award winners were handed out at the Memorial Cup in Moncton, New Brunswick. The Quebec Remparts won the Canadian junior championship while the Peterborough Petes, featuring local resident and backup netminder Trevor Cann, placed fourth. Van Koeverden wins World Cup golds Oakville native Adam van Koeverden continued his strong start to the kayaking season last KEVIN HILL / SPECIAL TO THE OAKVILLE BEAVER GOING UP: The Oakville Crusaders (in black) played their first home game of the Ontario Rugby season last weekend at Crusader Park against Balmy Beach. The teams played to a 13-13 draw.