D2 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, June 6, 2001 Halton champion Jr. Red Devils head to Barbarian Cup G il b e r t Photo by Brent Foster GOOD SPORTS, PART ONE: The old saying goes that soccer is a game for gentlemen played by ruffians while rugby is a game for ruffians played by gentleman. The latter, at least, was certainly in evidence in the junior Halton final when this Oakville Trafalgar player, Fraser Mathews, late in the game, assisted this injured Nelson player off the field. The Oakville Trafalgar Red Devils easily won last week's junior Halton championship, 28-10 over Nelson. But to win the provincial Barbarian Cup championship they'll likely have to go through an old school nemesis, Brantford Collegiate. You have to look no further than the beginning of the month when the senior Red Devils, who also won their 30th Halton title in 31 years, with an 8-0 win over Notre Dame, had their provincial championship ambitions derailed 10-5 by Brantford in the OFSAA semifinals. Brantford went on to win the OFSAA senior provincial champi onship 9-0 over Upper Canada. Going back to last year, the junior Red Devils made it all the way to the Barbarian Cup provincial finals where they lost to, you guessed it, Brantford. And this season, the junior Red Devils swept through their regular sea son and playoff schedule with an 8-0 record and, over all, are an impressive 15-1, their one loss coming to, you guessed it, Brantford. This year, the two arch rivals lead their respective draws at the Barbarian Cup, which runs June 7/8 at York University, so if both teams can win their way through, they'll have a date in the championship game. "It just happens to be that both pro grams are very strong and we always seem to end up in those championship games together, and I'd like to come out on the winning end this time," said coach David Schaffler. Oakville Trafalgar managed to avoid any unpleasant surprises in their 28-10 win over Nelson. They had played them previously with a similar scoreline, remarked coach Schaffler. "Our guys came out really sharp. "Nelson had some players that had played for the Ontario program -- same with us. So we knew them fairly well and we were able to prepare for that and take care of them." Standing out in the championship game was scrum half Graham Belovay. "He distributed the ball very well for us, he was aggressive, good tackling, good kicking, a real standout player for us. "Fraser Mathews: he's our captain and he did an excellent job getting the guys ready before the game and really led by example on the field, full out, intense. "Even when one of the Nelson play ers got injured. He went over and he even assisted him off the field. Very, very good sportsmanship on his part. "Dan Valley, one of our forwards, he was just a dominant player out there, physically just bashing away at play ers." The team also sports an U-15 Ontario team player n Taylor Conigan. "It's his first year with us. He's been a real nice surprise. A very consistent player for us." `Horns mark return to Bronte Field with a win By Norm Nelson BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR W ith no exhibition game behind their belts, the Oakville Longhorns were happy to have their N orthern Football Conference (NFC) season opener at Bronte Field in O akville on Saturday night turn into one. And that's no slight to the expansion Oshawa Hawkeyes who were, after all, kicking off their franchise in senior m en's football. The `Horns, on the other hand, are arguably the best m en's team in the country, out side of the CFL, having won last year's inaugural Canadian Senior Football League (CSFL) national championship game in W innipeg last fall. Certainly, they are the best in Ontario, having won the Northern Football Conference cham pionship for the past eight years. With the number of players in camp this year looking for a spot on the team, they probably could have realistically fielded a second team in the league which has really taken off this season, expanding to nine teams from four stalwarts last season. Realistically, Oshawa would have had to pull a rabbit out of their helmet to win this one. As it was, the `Horns led 21-0 after the first quarter and 35-0 after the first half to cruise to victory. The second half, for all intents and purposes, turned into the exhibition game they never had. Routs can sometimes turn into chippy affairs, but Oshawa back Mark Demerling threw the first four touchdown passes while Richard Rebiere threw the final toss. D erw in Phillips had the lone rushing touchdown for 67 yards. He was responsible for th e' bulk of the `Horns 147 yards on the ground, rushing for 97 yards on five carries. The H orns' generals were hitting a lot of bull's eyes, with an 11/13 com pletion rate. Demerling had the most work, going five-for-seven, before giving way to Rebiere and Domenic Camastro. Defensively, Pat M cNemey stood out with three tackles, 1.5 sacks and one o f the two fumble recoveries (J J . Nunn nabbing the other one). Steve Sacchitiello nabbed an inter ception. On special teams, Rob Fox had a 38-yard punt return. UPCOMING The `Horns should get an interesting test this Saturday, 6 p.m. at Bronte Field in Oakville. M arkham Raiders are in town and although they are one of the five new entries to the league this year, they are actu ally a returning franchise after a one year absence. But in each of the three previous years, they made it to the NFC cham pionship game only to lose to the `Horns each time. Coach Tony M olnar con ceded he doesn't know if M arkham m anaged to improve in their year sabbati cal (in which they played in the U.S.), and he hadn't even been privy to the other weekend NFC results to give him some idea. But it could be an early test for the `Horns. `Horns Q.B. Richard Rebiere gets smacked. made its entry into the league with class, and even showed up later for the `fifth quarter'. Oakville's Dana Segin was an unexpected offensive force. For the past several years, he has been in and out of CFL training camps as a kicker. But unable to hang on for any length of time, he has appar ently given up on his dream of playing professional football in Canada by declining an invite to a CFL training camp this spring. That decision prompted the `Horns to unleash him from the special team s kicking crew, and he caught two touchdown passes (41 and six yards). He also kicked the single point convert for five of the six touchdowns, with a high snap snapping a possible perfect conversion rate. Also catching T.D. tosses were Colin Grant (15 yards), Greg Mackan (8 yards) and Mike Dingsdale (38 yards). Forty-som ething quarter Photos by Barrie Erskine GOOD SPORTS, PART TWO: the Oakville Longhorns take time out from their season opener to check out some new sneakers worn by an Oshawa Hawkeyes player. Just kiddin'. Actually, the player was suffering a foot cramp, which is not the least bit humorous, and the `Horns assisted. Ybuthfiil Raiders squad had five `rimers' in key roles (Continued from page D1) Photo Special to the Beaver by Tim McKenna Star Raiders striker Kara Lang (blue), a member of both the Canadian and Ontario U-17 soccer teams, bowls over an opponent in a charge for the ball during the gold medal game Saturday. Lang was the top scorer in the tour nament with 11 goals. `We've got a bright future to look at. ' - coach Michelle Spears their goals: "They scored two really nice goals on us. Both of them were transition goals." And at the other end, "they played very, very smart defensively." As well, she said they were able to rally from a key injury at a key time with the score tied 1-1. "Their goalie went down injured and was taken out of the game about 15 minutes into the second half. "And their team came out with so much heart after that injury and I think they had us, there, for a little bit in terms of the heart and the mentalness of the team at that point in the game." And obviously, the high powered Aquinas offence finally fired a few blanks. "We just couldn't finish our scoring chances in that game. We had two crossbars, two goal posts and their goalie played extremely well." Spears said over confidence was not a factor. "I think the girls were pretty mentally prepared. W hat we didn't anticipate was their defensive set-up. They played very defensively." In particular, she thought they did a great job of m ark ing Oakville's star offensive threat, striker Kara Lang, a national and provincial U-17 player, although having just turned 14 and only in grade nine. She made her presence known with a tournament high 11 goals but was kept off the scoresheet for the final game. The team also boasts two other provincial U-15 team members in Karen Zmirak and Erika Taugher, both grade nine students. As well, OAC student Alana Juzenas is on the provin cial U-19 basketball team and will suit up for the University of Western's basketball team this fall. Another excuse coach Spears refused to tag the loss on was the team's relative youth. Besides Lang, there are four other starters who are only in grade nine, and they include Karen Zmirak, Erika Taugher, Katie McKenna and Kersha Walker. That's almost half the squad. Actually, M cKenna and Walker played with the junior team, joining the senior team once during the season just to make them eligible for the OFSAA playdowns. She did concede that size may have been a factor on some of "the defensive match-ups on our grade nines against some o f the older girls on some of the other teams." But she also maintained that the 'niner' contingent are pretty seasoned rep stars, including provincial and nation- al team members, who "have been in so many big games before." In any event, it wasn't like the school's arm was being twisted to play them. They earned their way into the start ing line-up. "They're very skilled players, they're very quick. And certainly with the addition of them, the speed of our team increased ten-fold and that made us tough to beat. That was certainly a factor in a lot o f our games with our speed and our quickness." And that's the true positive side of this story, is the fact that five key starters are just in grade nine. Hey, Gretzky and M essier didn't exactly call it a career when they failed in their first Stanley Cup appearance. "We've got a bright future to look at," agreed coach Spears. On paper, at least, she added, "the team is going to be just as strong next year." For several of the team members, the silverware is beginning to mount. That's because seven o f the soccer players also suited up for the Aquinas senior girls basketball team which also won a prestigious OFSAA provincial silver medal at the top AAA level. Alana Juzenas and Kara Lang were starters; Karen Zmirak and Clare O'Connor saw as much action off the bench; and Kelley MacKenzie, Lauren Hanley and Katie Ballard were also on the team. In that particular case, the silver medal was appreciat ed almost immediately as the extremely close loss came against provincial powerhouse St. M ary's who won their third straight OFSAA gold medal.