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The Times Advocate, 2008-11-05, Page 1818 Times -Advocate Wednesday, November 5, 2008 THIS WEEK IN SPORTS... Lucan-Ilderton Jets suffer first Toss PAGE 19 Two hat tricks for Lucan irish PAGE 19 SPORTS TIP CONTACT TIMES -ADVOCATE Ben Forrest • 519-235-1336 ext. 114 • Fax 519-235-0766 • E-mail bforrest@southhuron.com SPORTS LEISURE Exeter Hawks suffer third period letdown against Mt. Brydges By Ben Forrest TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF EXETER The Exeter Hawks suffered a difficult loss Fri- day against Mt. Brydges, the final tally being 5-1. Mt. Brydges opened the scoring at 2:30 in the second peri- od on the strength of a power play goal from Brad Cooper. Exeter s Justin Reid answered back with a power play goal of his own three minutes later. Paul Bowden and Shane Mudge notched assists on the goal. Mt. Brydges then exploded for four goals in the third pe- riod, cruising to victory. I think it was about a six -minute span that cost us an- other loss, said Hawks coach Jamie Pearce. Penalties caught up to us, he added. We killed penal- ties pretty well up until that point, and they finally broke through. Two out of the [four] goals were power play goals. Pearce said he was happy with the team s play until that point, including the play of goaltender Mike Siddall When you get 67 shots on net, you have to be happy with the goaltending, he said, adding the shots were pretty evenly distributed. He had a barrage of shots in the first and second, and that held us into the game. Exeter managed 42 shots of their own, a positive develop- ment that did not turn out as the team might have hoped. For whatever reason, we didn t score when we had that many shots, he said. Maybe the quality of shots weren t as good. Pearce said he believes Exeter can compete with any team in the league, and finds it encouraging that the Hawks could play Mt. Brydges so closely for two periods. We know we can play with anybody, he said. It s just a matter of keeping it for 60 minutes right now. Exeter had only one goal on 20 power plays, a concern Pearce said will be addressed in practice. He acknowledged Mt. Brydges has an aggressive penalty kill. We weren t able to penetrate it, he said. Exeter had 12 penalties in the game to Mt. Brydges 20, and Pearce acknowledged he wants his team to be physi- cal. Penalties called after the whistle, however, are a concern. I want guys to play the body, there s no question about that, he said. It s the extra-curriculars that are discourag- ing, and there wasn t a whole lot of that. Exeter will again face Mt. Brydges on Nov 7, an away game for Exeter that will be approached in a way similar to last Friday s contest. We re just going to prepare for them the same way we did last time, and we re going to hope for a better out- come, Pearce said. If we go a little better on the power play, maybe the outcome will be different. I like my chances every time we step on the ice, he add- ed, and I only see improvement. South Huron field hockey team takes WOSSAA bronze By Ben Forrest TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF INGERSOLL The South Huron District High School (SHDHS) field hockey team captured the bronze medal at the WOSSAA tournament in Ingersoll. They played Park- side Collegiate and dominated from start to finish, ending their season in a very positive manner, said coach Jim Workman. After many great opportunities, Staci Miller scored from a quick free hit taken by Emily Lacasse. This occurred with eight minutes left in the first half. The game flowed from end to end for the rest of a very entertaining game, Workman said. Karly Bryson dominated the centre of the field and led from defence to offence, said Workman. The score did not change, and the Panthers won the game 1-0. Rookie and graduating player Taryn An- stett registered a shutout. In pool play on Thursday, the Panthers played eventual champions Medway and Workman believes they should have won the tightly -contested game. The final score was 0-0. In the second game, South Huron played Glencoe and defeated them 2-0. It took 23 minutes for the Panthers to get on the score- board as they struggled to gain momentum against a stubborn opponent. Emily Lacasse pounced on a rebound from a Miller bullet set up by Sandra Gregus on a penalty corner. The score at the half was 1-0. Ten minutes into the second half, Karly Bryson sealed the victory with a blazing effort from just inside the Glencoe D (field hockey term for shooting circle). The team had to wait for the outcome of the Medway / Glencoe game to see which team was first in that pool. In that game, the score was 1-0 for Medway until four min- utes from the end of the 60 -minute game. Medway scored, making the score 2-0. The Panthers headed back to get ready for penalty strokes and the final whistle went. Medway had been awarded a short corner. This meant they were allowed to play until that corner was scored or cleared away. Medway managed to scramble the ball just over the line to win 3-0 and claim first place, with the Panthers claiming second. This meant South Huron faced Goderich in the one semi-final and Medway played Parkside in the other. Friday morning, the Panthers started the game slowly and allowed Goderich to dom- inate for the first half as their nerves got the better of them, Workman said. Just before the half ended Goderich scored, though South Huron did not just fold and go home. Workman said they dug into their reserves and took it to the Vikes, and were rewarded for their efforts as they tied the game on a opportunistic goal by Emily Lacasse just 10 minutes into the half. The final score at the end of regulation play was 1-1. In sudden -death overtime, they searched diligently for a winner and almost had it on the last play of the game as Lacasse lobbed over the goalie and just went wide of the post. As the score was still unchanged, a pen- alty shootout was used to decide a winner. Five players from each team were selected to complete these strokes and the outcome of this was a 2-2 tie. In a sudden death format, one player from each team was selected and Goderich won 1-0, winning the game and sending them to play for the gold medal. The pressure in these cases is very intense and takes away the team in the game, Workman said. Most players do not want to be placed in this position. Overall this was a tremendous season as rookies, two of whom are also graduating really made massive improvement. Congratulations to the graduating play- ers, Keri Reschke, Staci Miller and Sandra Gregus for four / five great seasons and to the rookie graduates Ashley Renning and Taryn Anstett, Workman said. Tough loss Exeter Hawks forward Scott Muirhead eludes a Mt. Brydges player in the above photo.The Hawks played Mt. Brydges evenly until the third period, losing 5- I. (Photo/ Scott Nixon) Exeter Mohawks pick up their first win of the season By Ben Forrest TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF THEDFORD The Exeter Mohawks picked up their first win of the season Saturday against Thedford. The Mohawks scored the first three goals of the game, leading 3-0 after the first period. They sur- rendered two goals in the second frame but added one of their own, leading 4-2 after 40 minutes. In the third period they scored four more goals while surrendering one, the game ending in an 8-3 Exeter victory. It s nice to get our first win, for sure, said Mo- hawks coach Mark Liv- ermore. Our first three games were against the three top teams in our di- vision, so we went 0 for 3 in October and had a good start to November. He added that the team had been shorthanded in those early games, but is closer to having a full ros- ter now, and Livermore thinks this bodes well for the future. Friday night we went into Petrolia with 14 skat- ers, and you can t win in this league with three lines, he said. You need a full bench. I think we re headed in the right direc- tion. Indeed, the Petrolia game was a decisive 9-5 loss. The score was tied at 5-5 in the third period, but Exeter got into penalty trouble, and went down- hill from there, Liver- more said. On Saturday night we bounced back with a pret- ty decisive win. Livermore is in his sec- ond year as Mohawks coach, and has positive impressions of this year s squad. There s a lot of success- ful players on the team, he said, noting many of the players have won On- tario championships. They don t get too ex- cited if they win, they don t get too excited if they lose, he added. They just go about their business and I think that leads to success down the road. Though they sat in eighth place in their di- vision after the Thedford game, Livermore believes the Mohawks could end the season in first. I think we have a very good defensive core, and defence always wins championships, so I think we 11 be alright, he said. I m excited. I m glad Oc- tober s over, and I m ex- cited going forward. Livermore gave credit to Thedford, a team he said has improved since last year and didn t give up in Satur- day s game. They were battling, he said. They weren t giving up. We were ahead and they didn t quit. Then in the third peri- od I think just experience took over. Like I said, (our players) don t get rattled. They just kept on work- ing hard. Maintaining intensity, however, is something the Mohawks will be working on in the days ahead. We ve got to play the 60 minutes, and that s been our downfall, he said. We ve played a good 40 minutes but there s a period where we don t play. We ve lost two one -goal games against Tillsonburg and Tavistock, where we didn t play a full 60 min- utes ... and we ve got to work on that. We ve got to be better than that. The Mohawks do not play again until a Nov. 15 home game against the Lucan-Ilderton Jets. We ve got a very busy November after this com- ing weekend, said Liv- ermore. We ve put Oc- tober behind us and I m sure we 11 move up in the standings after this month.