www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, June 6, 2014 | 22 Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community" OT girls claim OFSAA silver, but feel like winners Debatable call ends provincial rugby nal by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor HAMILTON -- The Oakville Trafalgar Red Devils had so many reasons to think `what if'. What if Abbey Henley's determined charge down eld in the dying seconds of Wednesday's provincial high school girls' rugby nal hadn't come inches short of the Brantford Collegiate Institute goal line? What if, after BCI fumbled the ball in its end zone following an ensuing scrum, the Red Devils had been ruled to be the team that recovered it, as they thought they were? And what if the referee hadn't ended the game following that play and OT had taken possession ve metres from the Mustangs' goal, something Red Devils coach Dan Valley called "the most advantageous attacking position you can have?" But, just minutes after her team lost the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AAA/AAAA nal by one point, 6-5, the Red Devils' Sadie Stephenson wasn't interested in playing the `what if' game. She still felt like her club had won, just in a different sense. "Since the beginning of the season, we've had the mentality of `As one'," said Stephenson, whose jersey bore those two words just below its collar. "Our goal this year was to be connected as a team, and I think we've gone above and beyond that. We didn't have to win (the gold) to know we won as a team. We were the team we wanted to be at the beginning of the season." That isn't to suggest that Wednesday's outcome at Mohawk Sports Park was easy to swallow for the top-seeded Red Devils. OT was forced to settle for silver despite not allowing a try -- BCI's points came on a pair of penalty kicks by Rachel Adkins, who also stopped Henley on the Red Devils' last possession -- and appeared to deserve at least one more chance to win the game at the end. "From my point of view, it was a knock-on in the end zone (after Brantford fumbled the ball forward), we were the rst team on it, that's a try and it's a 10-6 game for OT," said Valley, who calmly spoke with the referee immediately following the nal whistle. "But at the end Oakville Trafalgar Red Devils' Sadie Stephenson surges down eld during Wednesday's Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations girls' rugby AAA/AAAA nal at Hamilton's Mohawk Sports Park. Stephenson scored a second-half try but the Red Devils fell one point -- and a few inches -- short of OFSAA gold, losing 6-5 to the Brantford Collegiate Institute Mustangs. | photo by Michael Ivanin -- Oakville Beaver of the day, it's the ref who is in the front seat. He's got the best point of view, and it's tough to argue with him. He's the sole judge of that." The Red Devils players didn't vehemently challenge the call either. Several of them just slowly fell to the eld in shock. "The timing (of the game ending) was debatable," said Stephenson, who scored OT's only points at the 37-minute mark of the 50-minute contest, diving across the goal line to cut into BCI's 6-0 lead. "But I don't want to say (the ref was biased) because I could be biased, too. It was a knock-on, and it was weird to end it at that. (The BCI player) was in her end zone." Charlotte Dunn, who delivered the winning penalty kicks in OT's overtime victory over Uxbridge in Tuesday's semi nals, narrowly missed converting Stephenson's try. She also was wide on a penalty kick early in the second half, but both the penalty kick and the convert were from difcult angles near the left sideline. "She's the highest-scoring athlete in this program's history," Valley said of Dunn, who will play university rugby next year. "It's easy mathematically to look at (missed kicks) and say that was the difference, but in my mind that's not what changed the game for us." The Red Devils were seeking their second OFSAA girls' rugby gold in three years. Wednesday morning, Valley received a text from the coach of the team the Red Devils beat in the 2012 nal -- Ashbury College -- reminding him to cherish the chance to play for another provincial title. It's a message Valley passed along to his Red Devils before the OFSAA nal. "Waking up on Day 3 of OFSAA as one of two high schools still standing is a pretty special thing, and you don't always get that opportunity... It's not beyond the realm of possibility that we're never back, that I'm never back, with this chance. It absolutely makes you appreciate (the gold) two years ago," said Valley, whose team will lose nine starters to graduation. "With that said," he added with a smile, "we'll be back." OFSAA girls' rugby silver-medallist Oakville Trafalgar Red Devils Dean Bailey Linnea Beckman Ellie Cookson Gabriella Debos Sonja Dobson Charlotte Dunn Courtney Fang Theresa Fang Niki Geladi Abbey Henley Emma Henry Tianna Home Hannah Howden Breanna Jager Joanna Kadwell Katherine Knauf Mikela Lehan Kate Chalmers Hannah Nasiribeyqi Simone Oliviere Sydney Wade Faria Malik Emily Marshall Sarah McClure Natasha Morita Sydney Newton Brynn Paisley Kirsten Persad Isabella Plutino Megan Pryce Jones Lauren Roth scher Maddy Seatle Rachel Semler Katherine Slattery Sadie Stephenson Brodie Turner Grace Van de Camp Alyssa Wain Hannah Wasslen