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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1996-04-10, Page 14This Week in Sports,.. • Exeter plays Sweden - page 15 • Exeter figure skating wrap up - page 16 Hawks battle Wellesley for Jr "D" champlonshlp EXETER The' Exeter Hawks 'eliminated Thamesford Thursday night • leaving only one more team be- tween them and the 'Junior De- velopment crown. The Wellesley Apple Jacks is the only team left to conquer during their quest for an AH -Ontario championship, however, the Hawks are up for a fightas Wellesley won the first game in Exeter on Sunday. Despite outshooting Wellesley .40-20 -in the rare Sunday, matinee game. Exeter lost the first game of the final series 4-1. Sean Brown scored Exeter's lone goal in the first period assisted by Dan Taylor and Shayne Robinson. The Hawks have only _ played Wellesley once before when they heat then 6-1 early in the season. They arc different than the three teams Exeter eliminated to get to the final round; not as physical as North Middlesex and not as fast as Scalorth, Wellesley seems to rely on one strong line and a hot goalie for their success. "They play a patient game. They like to sit hack and wait it out," said coach Dave Revington. Indeed, the Apple Jacks didn't take many chances during their first g,lme against Exeter declining to forecheck or press hard on the offensive fly. Their conservative style of play allowed the Hawks to walk in and take numerous shots on net, how- ever, their goalie stopped all but one. "A lot of them were long shots and he saw them all the way," said Revingtbn adding that they were not creating enoiiiTi Traffic in front' Some of Exeter's key goals against Thamesford were slap shots coming from the point, but that's not going to work in this series. Small but fast; the all-star goalie between the pipes for Wellesley displayed his speed when he robbed Craig Corriveau . of a goal with a glove hand save after Cor- riveau broke in alone in the third period. "We're just going to have to beat this goalie," said assistant coach. Jeff Dalrymple. Hawks eliminate Thamesford The Hawks earned a berth in the championship series with Welles- ley when they eliminated Tha- mesford -four games to one last week. • After winning their first three games, the Hawks were threat- ening to sweep the series with .a fourth straight win in Thamesford last Tuesday. Ryan Chamney scored first for the Hawks after taking a pass from Chris McDonald and Shayne Rob- inson scored twice in the second period, once on a powerplay and once shorthanded. He was assisted by Chris Kennedy and Mark Bell. However, four quick goals helped Thamesford win the game 5-3 bringing the series back to Exeter on Thursday for a fifth game. • Penalties were kept to a mini- mum on both sides, but the Hawks took advantage of them scoring on three of their five powerplay op- portunities. Mark Bell accounted for two of theht. Both were low and hard slap -shots coming from Vain ifie 'slot area Hi—was asbtAlcurlospelsKiaboiriti - *ate. Chris Kennedy: Nathan .Burns also scored on a powerplay with a pass from Bell and Joe MacDonald. Robinson and Brown made up.Ezeter's two other points on the :scoreboard with -as- sists .going to Jeff -Glavin, Dan Taylor, MacDonald and Robinson. The 5-3 win sent :Thainesfoi.d 10 the showers for the last -tune . this season. With the provincial title. in .sight, Wellesley is the last piece to The OHA Junior :"D» "championship puzzle. With the first game behind them, Exeter will head into the sec- ond game tonight. (Wednesday) and try to even the score, but they know it won't be easy, Finishing first in their division with over 25 wins, Wellesley. is a team to -be reckoned with. Then again, so are the Hawks. "Player for player, I feel we're a better hockey club," said Dat- rymple who is confident Exeter will come out on top. "We've come too far to finish as runner ups,,, Revington agrees. "We' -ye played three good teams to get here. These guys didn't come this far because they're lucky, we have a good hockey team," he said. The Hawks are in Wellesley to- night (Wednesday) for game two. They will host the rest of their home games in Lucan, starting on Saturday night for game three, keeping with their usual 8:30 p.m. game times. Game four is sched- uled for April 14 in Wellesley in a 3:00 afternoon game, and if nec- essary, game five will be played in Lucan, game six is back to Welles- WOAA Atom Local Champions The Stephen Township Atom ''Badboys" were 1995-96 WOAA Local Champions. Shown back row left to right, Mark Lege Sr., assistant coach; Wes •deLange, Chris Arnold, Aaron Geiger, Mark Desjardine, trainer; Mark Laye Jr., John Eagleson, James Reschke, John Mull- er, coach. Front row I to r,, Brian Glavin, Justin Muller, David Desjardine, Jamle Bibby, Reid O'Neal. Missing: Shane Gregoire. Jeff Glavin, above, buries the puck top shelf past a bewildered Thamesford goalie during a home game at the South Huron Recreation Centre. Glavin scored the game winning goal in game one and in game three during the Thamesford series accu- mulating a total of five points. Mark Bell, right, shined throughout the' Thames - ford series scoring five goals and three assists for . Exeter. His blistering slap -shots from thepoint struck fear in the hearts of goaltenders and has become his trademark. The Exeter Hawks are cur- rently embroiled in the Junior "D/ ."� championship Local girl competes in Quarterama HENSALL - A local girl com- peted with the Twin Bells Ranch in Quarterama '9b at the C.N.E... .gatrunds in Toronto r+eeently: • Erin Vanderham, 17, showing her horse "Watch What Happens" placed ninth out of 33 in the Youth Showmanship 15 to 18 cate- gory.. Vanderham; and her five year- old geldingaisti competed in two other elasseSiHHalterGeldings and Novice Youth Showmanship dur- ing the annual five day event which sho eases the versatility of some of the best Quarter Horses in Canada. Coached by trainer Don Patter- son, President of the Ontario Quar- ter Horse Association, Vandetham said this is the first time she has competed in the world class event and plans to participate again next year. Zurich Thunder settle for silver The Zurich Midgets lost their Alt -Ontario playoff series to Tamworth ZURICH - Despite their best ef- forts, the Zurich Thunder were un- able to win a game in the All - Ontario finals against Tamworth losing three games straight. The midgets lost the third game 6-4 in Tamworth Friday evening, and unlike the first two low - scoring games hi Zurich, this one produced two goals in the first minute. Tamworth opened the scoring on a shorthanded effort with only 32 seconds into the period. Zurich's Andrew Bedard provided a spark for his team when he netted a pow- erplay goal 28 seconds later to tic the score at one. Bryan Denomme and Chad Desjardine recorded as- sists. Less than three minutes later, Zu- rich took the lead on a goal from Mark 'Durand with assists going 10 Kris McKinnon and Eric Le- compte. The team was was pumped and started to apply pres- sure in the Tamworth zone when Peter Caslick picked up a loose puck and shot it in the top shelf to put his team up 3-1 midway through the first period. Dan Fink- beiner and Andrew Bedard drew assists. l'amwonh played a tight game and waited for their chances Mak- itig it 3=2 at the ertd of the first. In the second period, Chad Des- jardine took a cross checking pen- alty and Graham Keys took one for roughing seconds later. Tamworth wasted no time taking advantage of the situation scoring two goals be- fore the Thunder were hack at full strength. Another rash of penalties was 100 mach for the overburdened penalty killers -as Tamworth went up 5-3 with their third powerplay goal of the game. Zurich, however, refused to roll over as Lecompte scored a goal from Alan Jeffrey and Durand to pull the Thunder within one. The third period turned out to be a goaltender's dual as both goalies kept their opponents off the score- board. John Miners gave another outstanding performance in be- tween the pipes for Zurich but Tamworth scored their fourth pow- erplay goal and insurance marker with just one minute Left in the game. Zurich pulled their goalie for a sixth attacker and pressured Tam- worth for the remaining minute left in the game but couldn't score; The final score was 6-4 in favor of Tamworth. Immediately following the game, each Zurich player received a sil• Ver provincial medal from OMHA representatives and the team was awarr_'ed the Art Pye Memorial Midget "E" trophy. Coach Don Beauchamp said he was proud of the team's per- formance adding that he received many compliments from Tamworth players, coaches and fans for hav- ing a first class team. Hecredits the Zurich fans for supporting the Thunder throughout the year as well as the playoffs. "They were loud at all our games, it wax wonderful to have such a strong following all the way to Tamworth," said Beauchamp. Centennials aim for first division Exeter Minor Soccer executives say a select competitive team will keep talented players in Exeter EXETER - In an attempt to keep talented soccer players in Exeter, the Exeter Centennial Mens soccer club has appointed a committee to help create a `first division" team. The Centennials organization, which Ls affiliated with Exeter Minor Soccer, is holding the first of a series of try -outs tonight, (Wednesday) searching for a combination of youth and talent to formulate a well-balanced team for the upcoming soccer season. Currently, the Centennials play in the Second Division of the Western Ontario Soccer League along with the Fury, another Exeter mens soccer club created a few years ago. Peter Hakvoort, president of Exeter Minor Soccer said they are trying to create a forum for talented soccer players coming up through the ranks of minor soccer. "There may or may not be professional soccer. players coming out of minor soccer, but we have some excellent talent hi: our youth," said Hakvoort, Registration in Exeter Minor Soceet as climbed over The years and the organization has been striving to provide higher level of coaching to improve the quality of soccer players among the community's youth. However, as the young talent matures many of them are attracted to London premier and first divi- sion teams which play at a higher skill level. "As the kids in minor soccer get older we find they become highly competitive and want to play in a more competitl en- vironment so we lase them to the London area organizat In s," said llakvoort adding a first division team in Exeter wilt keep them' here. However, a first division spot would have to be earned by win- ning the second division championship. Last season the Cen- tennials finishedlifth out of 11 teams, in the past 2S years the Centennials, have not endorsed an or- ganized approach to player selection. Hakvoort said the new process will focus on creating a tearn that will get the Centenni- als to the higher division after next season. No special considerations will be given to players who have previously played on any one of the mens teams and anyone is welcome to try -out. Hakvoort feels a successful first division soccer club in Exeter will attract pew players and prevent oth- ers from leaving. "We are ready to put together a select team that can compete with any large urban organization and unless we go through with this we're not going to keep young talented players in Ex- eter," said Hakvoort. • ikiks •