Saints, Canes advance to OFSAA

Thomas A. Stewart Griffins sweep Kawartha AAA junior and senior boys rugby championships

The city’s two Catholic high schools earned OFSAA boys lacrosse berths Wednesday.

The Holy Cross Hurricanes humbled the Crestwood Mustangs, 13-3, in the Kawartha AA final. The St. Peter’s Saints edged the Thomas A. Stewart Griffins, 5-3, in AAA. Both games were played at Holy Cross Secondary School.

Holy Cross only beat Crestwood by two goals in their previous encounter, but led 8-1 at halftime, dominating the faceoff circle.

“We’re a young team that had a lot of learning to do and all year we talked about climbing that ladder and learning from mistakes,” said Holy Cross coach Geoff McKinley. “Today, the boys were able to put together a full 48 minutes and it showed.”

They’ll head to the OFSAA AA Festival in Owen Sound on May 30 and 31.

“It’s our first time going to OFSAA, because of COVID,” said Tommy Pollock, who scored a pair of Holy Cross goals, “But it’s going to be a great time. Hopefully we can make some waves.”

Also scoring for Holy Cross were Nick O’Brien and Bradley Montgomery, with three each, Nate Sage, with two, and Drew Calderwood, D.J. Crough and Jack Goan. Scoring for Crestwood were Ryder Perry, Scott Prentice and Eric Hainer.

“I thought we’d have a much better game,” said Crestwood coach Wade Wiggins. “Unfortunately, they had the bulk of possession and played smart and ran the clock to their advantage. They’re wellcoached and deserve the credit.”

St. Peter improved to 5-0 in Kawartha play to advance to the OFSAA AAA Festival on May 30 and 31 in Mississauga.

Nathan Stephenson and Nick Fournier scored two each and Reed Chamberlain had one. Colby Wood had two for TASSS and Quinn Jacobs one. The Saints led 3-0 and TASSS twice made it a two-goal game.

“We haven’t had a lacrosse program in two seasons, so Mike Martone and I had a lot of teaching to do and the guys have responded really well,” Saints coach Rod McGillis said.

“Not many had field lacrosse experience. In the past, we’d have them for a number of years but we had Grade 11s, 10s and 9s who hadn’t played. It’s been challenging. We have a couple of top-end guys who can put the ball in the net and we built the team around them.”

Griffins coach Jeff Ralph tipped his hat to Saints goalie Geordie Addison for keeping them at bay.

“I was really proud of our boys,” Ralph said. “I thought we played really well. St. Pete’s is the powerhouse team in the city, they always have been. Our defence played awesome again today. That’s been the core of our team and they really stepped up to keep them at five goals.”

Griffins sweep boys rugby titles

The Thomas A. Stewart Griffins swept the Kawartha AAA junior and senior boys rugby titles at home on Wednesday.

The junior Griffins continued an unbeaten season at 6-0 with a 19-0 win over Lindsay’s I.E. Weldon Wildcats.

The senior Griffins also defeated I.E. Weldon 50-3 to improve to 3-2 on the season.

The Griffins will host COSSA AAA next Wednesday.

It’s been a strong season for the juniors, who had no players with rugby experience entering the season.

“They’re learning a lot. We haven’t had rugby in two years,” said Griffins coach Jeff Challice.

“It’s really good to get rugby back just in general. The juniors are a good group of athletes who are learning the game and playing hard. Weldon gave us a great game. it was a close game the whole game. We played very well defensively,” he said. “The senior team had a slow start to our season but we’re getting better as the season goes on. We’re hoping to continue getting better and hopefully make it through COSSA and onto OFSAA.”