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Wednesday, May 31, 2000 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER D1 One number. 24 hours a day 2 4 H our Good Neighbour Servicen A n d rew H eid em a n 829-0018 SportsWednesday By Scott MacArthur LIVE ENTERTAINMENT Every Friday & Saturday! Ladies' Night Every Friday Friday June 2, & Saturday June 3 "POWERHOUSE" 844-8703 at 10:00pm An Oakville Beaver Feature Editor: NORM NELSON Phone:845-3824, ext 255 Fax:337-5567 E-mail nnelson@haltonsearch.com I t 's o v e r . . . Oakville Trafalgar' s unprecedented strin g o f H alton titles has finally com e to an end SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER The sound of the referee's whistle marking the end of Friday's Halton high school senior boys' cham pi onship game was the last thing in the world any player, coach, or fan of Oakville Trafalgar High School's his torically successful rugby program wanted to hear. With the screech of the final whis tle came the conclusion of perhaps one of the most impressive cham pi onship runs in the history of high school sports. OTHS's 18-17 loss to N otre Dame in the final game destroyed their chance at a 30th con secutive Halton rugby title, ended their winning streak at 29 years and left all of their supporters in silent shock. Coaches Greg Sora and Allan Kouba scoured the field after the game, picking up the dejected bodies of their players who had just tasted defeat. Unlike the last three years, OTHS had gone into the game the strong favourite to win and begin a fourth decade as Halton rugby cham pions. They l^ d defeated Notre Dame 39-0 and 17-6 in two previous meet ings this year, so the prognosis was good. "You never take anything for granted, especially when it comes to the championship game," Sora said before the match, admitting he had the usual butterflies in his stomach that came before every Halton cham pi onship game he had coached. Early on, it looked as if O.T. was going to run away with it. M att Garden opened the scoring by inter cepting a pass and running the ball in for the game's first try. Eric Grimes hit the convert and O.T. opened up a 7-0 lead. Pat Dessaulles, the team 's leader and a Canadian junior team player, powered through shortly after for a try that went unconverted, giving the Red Devils a 12-0 lead. Notre Dame, who had consider ably smaller crowd support and few reserves on the sideline, looked like easy prey until they took advantage of three glaring O.T. miscues to close out the first half, ringing off three straight unconverted tries to go into the break leading 15-12. Notre Dame continued with the pressure early in the second half, grabbing three more points on a penalty kick to up the lead to 18-12. O.T. was on their heels for most of the second half, defending their endzone and rushing kicks in an attempt to create space. They managed a late try during a rush of desperation when Derek M um ford ran the ball in. Dessaulles missed the long convert, filling in for Grimes, who had left the game earlier with a sprained ankle. With the score 18-17, O.T. contin ued to put pressure on Notre Dame, drawing a penalty for an opportunity to kick for three points from close range, but instead rushed an offensive play in an attempt to score a try and failed. Sora felt that play was a major turning point in the outcome of the game. "I don't know what they were thinking on that play," he said after the game. "I guess they felt the rush late and weren't making clear deci sions. T hat's how the gam e goes sometimes." In the aftermath of defeat, Sora was quick to give credit where credit was due. "W ithout a doubt, 29 years of straight winning is a long run and I've been proud to be a part of the last nine," he said. "But N otre Dame showed here today that they were up to the task. They got terrific play from their backs and their forwards did the job they had to do." Sora said his team suffered all year from a lack of quality practice facili ties. O.T.'s field is currently unusable due to structural problems that began occurring at the start of spring. As he looks ahead to next year, Sora expects O.T. to be in for a challenge. "Next year will be a tough year because w e're losing a lot of our play ers," he said. "Notre Dame will be back and strong again, so to regain our place on top will be a good chal lenge for the boys." NO CONSOLATION: Allan Kouba, who coaches the Red Devils along with Greg Sora, consoles a player. ODE TO JOY: coach Brian Bodden gets soaked. ... it's beginning Lady R ed Devils reach OFSAA in first yea r By Scott MacArthur SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER t ; As one OTHS rugby tradition came to an end last week, a new one got its beginning. That's because the OTHS girls' rugby team, in its first year of exis tence, emerged victorious in a sixteam tournament last Wednesday held at Sherwood Forest Park in THE AGONY: Eric Grimes (left), Andrew Christie and Matt Garden (kneeling). Photos by Barrie Erskine THE THRILL: Ryan Houghton and Miles Dorrian Burlington. By virtue of the win, OTHS will be Halton's representative at the Ontario Federation o f School A thletic A ssociation (OFSAA) girls' rugby championships today through Friday in Brampton. They open with a game against Brantford today at 2 p.m. OTHS bested a field that included Burlington high schools N elson, (See 'Red Devils' page D2) ¥ Pom eroy reached O lym pic trial final last night By Norm Nelson . BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR O akville's Julia Pomeroy has made it to a final swim at C anada's Olympic trials which are under way in M ontreal all this week. The Q.E. Park grad made the coveted finaleight cut and was slated to race the 100 metre breast stroke last night. The race went beyond our press deadlines. A berth on C anada's Olympic team is on the line. Pomeroy is no stranger to the podium. At nationals last summer she won a 50m breast stroke race (not an Olympic event) and she has won bronze at nationals over 100m. Her goal, said Oakville Aquatic Club head coach Lucie Hewitt-Henderson, was to get into the final swim, and she did it with room to spare, finishing sixth in M onday's semifinal in a time o f 1:12.09. The fastest time was registered by Rhiannon Leier at 1:09.84. "She (Pomeroy) is going into the finals in sixth position feeling pretty confident about the step at a time program we're doing, and just seeing where it's going." Oakville qualified no less than nine swim mers to Canada's Olympic trials -- six from the Oakville Aquatic Club (including Pomeroy, her younger sister Laura Pomeroy, Christine Kubacki, Kate Plyley, Anna Lydall and Bryson Tan), two from the Oakville Dolphins swim club (Craig Lund and Craig Ross) and one from the M ississauga Aquatic Club (Andrew Hurd). Hurd finished third in both the semifinals and finals of the men's 400 metre freestyle. H e'll being hoping to qualify for the Olympics, however, in the 1500 metre race, an event which closes out the trials this Sunday. The Grade 12 Oakville Trafalgar student has won the event at the last two nationals but he has his work cut out for him in not only defend ing the title but to also make the Olympic stan dard. Here's how other Oakville competitors have File Photo by Peter C. McCusker Julia Pomeroy, who reached an Olympic trial finals last night, is no stranger to the podium on the national scene, including gold in the 50m breast stroke at last summer's nationals, fared at the trials, thus far. Christina Kubacki, in her OAC year at Oakville Trafalgar, didn't manage a second swim in the 100 fly but had a good personal result of 1:06.09, shaving a full six seconds off her time from a meet two weeks ago. Coach Hewitt Henderson termed it a "dynamite race." Likewise, the club's youngest competitor, 14-year-old Kate Plyley, who is in Grade 9 at Q.E. Park, didn't make a second swim, but went "best time in her event in the 400m freestyle, having a great swim and the opportu nity to race Canadian champions." Bryson Tan came really close to a second swim, finishing 19th in the 100m breast stroke "just missing out on the semifinals." "Again, he had the greatest opportunity, rub bing shoulders next to Morgan Knabe who broke Victor Davis's Canadian record -- so doing a dynamite job out there." The Oakville Dolphins also had one of their swimmers enter the frey with two races. Craig Lund had his best finish with a 24th place in the 100m back stroke in a time of 1:00 .20 . In 200m free he finished well back with a 2:06.62 mark. Feature Car 1989 HONDA ACCORD Excellent condition, auto/air. CMS 40 USB) VEHICLES TO CHOOSE FROM! 1993 HONDA CIVIC 2-DR. Sport wheels, perf. ex., sun roof. Don't miss it! OVER 40 USE) VEHICLESTO CHOOSE FROM! 1987 HONDA CRX N ew black paint on the "Pocket Rocket." OVER 40 USED VEHICLES TO CHOOSE FROM! 4-dr., auto/air, Perfect 2nd family car. OVER 40 USEDVEH10i5 TO CHOOSE FROM! 1991 MAZDA 626 1990 STANZA 6XE Deluxe. Fully equipped. Air, only 129,000 km. OVER 40 USffi VEHICLES TO CHOOSE FROM! KYUE'S VANS *4j9S0 1510 SPEERS ROAD (O R D UNE AT SPEERS) W I D U Y · SELL · LEASE - RENT - USED C A R S