High School Sports blog

CWOSSA b-ball Day 2

Here's the news from the morning Quad-A action so far out at SJAM. I'm heading out there tonight for the finals so the winner may be posted a bit late.

Junior semifinals:

Rez 56, Cameron Heights 45
Grand River 68, SJAM 57

That means tonight's final pits the best of D8 vs. the WCSSAA champ. Game goes at 6 p.m.

Senior semifinals:

SJAM 56, Bluevale 50
Centennial, 53, St. Mary's 41

Final at 8 p.m.

Triple-A:

Junior: Final, St. John's vs. North Park

Senior: Semifinal, St. David 50, North Park 46

CWOSSA update

The volleyball final out at RIM Park is in the books.

Forest Heights got some revenge winning 2-1 over WCI. The Vikes beat the Trojans in the Waterloo County final earlier this week.

Both clubs move on to OFSAA, Forest will get the high seed.

The junior final saw Grand River sweep WCI 3-0.

Triple-A in Simcoe:

Junior:

No. 5 St. David 47, No. 4 Galt 39

No. 6 Centre Dufferin 50, No. 3 Waterloo-Oxvord 47

No. 2 North Park 61, No. 7 Holy Trinity 32
No. 1 St. John's, No. 8 West Hill

Senior:

No. 1 St. David 68, No. 8 West Hill 22
No. 4 North Park 43, No. 5 Galt 41
No. 3 KCI, No. 6 St. James
No. 2 St. John's, No. 7 Simcoe

Quad-A at SJAM in Waterloo:

Junior:

Cameron Heights 53, J.F. Ross 41

SJAM 52, Cameron Heights 42

Grand River 72, Centennial 49
Rez 72, Centennial 39
Rez 67, Grand River 63 (OT)
SJAM 57, J.F. Ross 41

Senior:

SJAM 51, J.F. Ross 35

Centennial 65, Bluevale 57
Bluevale 65, Forest Heights 36
St. Mary's 51, J.F. Ross 36
Centennial 67, Forest Heights 58
SJAM 63, St. Mary's 49

Single-A:

Championship: Waterford 69, Rockway 51

 

Hockey recap

Look for Southwood to grab either the No. 1 or 2 seed at the girls CWOSSA hockey finals.

The Sabres have yet to lose this season after rallying to beat Resurrection 3-1 in yesterday's Waterloo County championship.

Catch a recap of the action here.

As for the boys final, well it's going to sudden death. 

Keep Monday at 2 p.m. free for the winner takes all final at RIM Park.

Forest Heights evened up the series yesterday in overtime. Cody Tapsell tapped in the winner.

And that's good news since both these teams are so closely matched. Gotta say that it has been quite a solid year on the high school hockey front. Lots of solid teams besides BCI and Forest.

Trojans force Game 3

Forest Heights forced a third and deciding match in the boys hockey finals out at RIM Park this afternoon.

Bluevale took a 1-0 lead into the third period but couldn't hang on. Forest potted a single in the third to force OT and Cody Tapsell tapped in the winner a few minutes into the 10-minute extra frame.

This final is a real dandy. Not much separating the two clubs at all. Thankfully, both move on to CWOSSA.

Game 3 goes Monday at RIM Park at 2 p.m.

The girls final ran next door at the Optimist rink. Similar story too. Rez took a surprising 1-0 lead into the third but undefeated Southwood fired back with three goals, including one empty netter. 

Make it two years and counting for Southwood's winning streak at WCSSAA.

Stories and pics on both games will be in tomorrow's paper.

 

And thanks to St. David coach Dave Mac Neil for the CWOSSA Triple-A basketball schedule.

 

Regionals under way

The CWOSSA draw for Quad-A volleyball arrived late last night.

All games go tomorrow at RIM Park beginning at 9 a.m.

Senior Pool A: WCI, Guelph Centennial, St. Benedict

Senior Pool B: Fergus Centre Wellington, Forest Heights, Grand River

I expect to see a rematch of last night's killer WCSSAA final between WCI and Forest Heights. If you missed it, WCI successfully two-peated. Is that even a word? It is now.

As for the juniors, Pool A has Grand River, Centennial and Rez. Pool B features Guelph CVI, WCI and Forest Heights.

Basketball regionals also begin tomorrow and wrap up Saturday at Sir John A. Macdonald.

And the fine folks at SJAM have put together a snazzy website for the event. There you can find schedules, draws and results soon after the games end. A nice touch from the Highlanders.

Grand River's junior team, pictured to the left, is among the mix. That's the crew after winning gold at WCSSAA.

To the reader who wanted info on Triple-A CWOSSA hoops -- I've requested a schedule but have yet to hear back from organizers.

Off to the rink today to catch girls and boys hockey finals.

Vikes rally for dramatic victory

Funny, before tonight's WCSSAA girls volleyball final, I was lamenting to one teacher about how disappointing this week of finals has been.

D8 volleyball, 3-0 junior and senior. WCSSA senior basketball, a bit of a blowout. D8 hoops, junior and senior, convincing wins. Only hockey has been close.

Sure enough, the junior final starts and Grand River wins 3-0 over WCI, the last two sets going 25-12. Great for Grand, but not so much for the spetators.

Then the senior tilt begins. Forest Heights takes the first set 25-15. Here we go again. But hold on, what's this? WCI ain't rolling over. The Vikes, two points away from going down 2-0, comeback to win the second set, the team's trade one more each and, voila, a fifth and deciding set.

Oh the drama. It's about time.

Tied 7-7, WCI bolts away for the victory. Players go nuts. Fans go wild and one reporter files his story and gets home in time to see the finale of Top Chef. Twas a good night.

Check tomorrow's paper for stories and pictures. As usual, the junior recap will be in the early edition. Senior in the late.

Hockey day in Waterloo tomorrow. Can Bluevale clinch? The Knights are up 1-0 in the best of three. Southwood takes on Rez in the girls one-game finale.

CWOSSA volleyball Friday at RIM. Regional hoops finals, Quad-A style, set for Saturday at SJAM.

Playoffs, news and other stuff

Alrighty, here we go with some tidbits from the land of high school sports.

My ears are still ringing from last night's basketball final. That sure was a loud one -- in a good way. The senior tilt saw Sir John A. Macdonald cruise to its first title in school history. That might have been the most lopsided final I've seen in the past five years.

Grand River won the junior tilt earlier last night in a game that was much closer. Check it out: Peters dials up victory for his dad.

The girls hockey final has been set and runs tomorrow at RIM Park. That means I'll be hopping from rink to rink between the boys and girls championships since both are running at the same time. The ladies final has Southwood taking on Resurrection at 2:30 p.m. at RIM's Optimist rink.

Game three of the boys final, if necessary, has been pushed to Monday at RIM Park at 2 p.m.

That's it for now. Have a nice afternoon and don't forget about tonight's WCSSAA girls volleyball final at Forest Heights.

Girls hockey final set

Ladies, sorry for the late post. Just in from some b-ball action and my head is still pounding to the hip hop beats of the speaker that was next to me in the Cameron Heights gym.

So, the final is set. Undefeated Southwood will face Resurrection who upset Elmira in a shootout in today's hockey semifinals. Does Rez have another upset in them? It will take quite an effort to dethrone the No. 1 ranked Sabres.

Here is the semi recap:

Southwood 5, Grand River 1
Sabres: Jessica Staats 2, Laura Neu, Emily Watson, Sarah Schoenau
Renegades: Erica Talmage

Rez 3, Elmira 2 (SO)
Phoenix: Nat Buttinger, Carly Payerl, Kailey Reinhard (SO winner)
Lancers: Erin Zach, Steph Straus

And let's not forget about Preston, who beat Galt 3-2 to advance to the Triple-A CWOSSA championships (14-25, 25-17, 25-15, 23-25, 14-16).

Finally, congrats to Rockway who won the D8 senior girls volleyball title 3-0 over St. Benedict and Rez who also swept the junior final 3-0 over St. Mary's. Couldn't get out to the game as it ran at the same time as the b-ball. But there will be an action shot in tomorrow's paper.

School history for the Clan

Macdonald finally did it. They won a senior boys hoops championship.

After years of coming close, and even placing fourth in Ontario, the Clan can call themselves champs on home soil.

And this one was a blowout. Not because KCI played poorly. I'm not going disrespect the Raiders at all. The Highlanders were just too good. I've never seen the team so focused. They charged out and built a 25-10 lead after one quarter and kept the foot on the gas pedal.

In the end, the scoreboard read 68-46. Guard Justin Tomas was on fire and finished with 28 points and had to have double digits in rebounds. Taylor Allan picked up 20. John Mitchell led the Raiders with a dozen.

The crowd was awesome, about 1,000 or more. Loud too. Lots of grads coming back to cheer on their former schools which is always a nice sign.

While we're at it, let's give some props to the Grand River Renegades who, at No. 4 heading into the post-season, won their first title in a decade with a 51-42 victory over Cameron Heights.

A story on the junior game will be in tomorrow's early edition of The Record. The senior story made the late edition.

Advantage Knights

Bluevale Collegiate took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three boys hockey final this afternoon out at RIM Park.

Forest Heights scored first on a Clarke O'Reilly power play goal about six minutes into the game. 

Soon after first line winger Derek Bisch landed awkwardly into the boards and an ambulance was called. Reports indicate that he seemed to be okay. Let's hope so.

Forest Heights was on cusp of closing the game out when Bluevale's Rory Landy knotted it up 1-1 with about five minutes to go in the third period.

BCI's Kris Pinkerton scored the game-winner short-handed in the waning stages on a set up from Nik Lubczynski.

Bluevale goalie Jake Heimpel and Forest Heights keeper Kevin Nickel were both sharp.

Game 2 goes Thursday back at RIM Park at 2 p.m.