The Halton Catholic Athletic Association (HCAA) Varsity Girls Hockey playoffs saw first-round action at River Oaks arena on Monday afternoon. The first-place Holy Trinity Titans scored early and often and took a 4-1 lead into the dressing room at the end of the first period against Burlington’s Corpus Christi Longhorns.
Confidence had to be high, considering the two teams met earlier in the season, with the Titans running up a 7-2 tally in December.
History would repeat itself with Trinity once again putting a five-goal differential on the scoreboard against Corpus, as the girls in black and gold sealed a 6-1 victory with two more pucks going into the Longhorn’s net in the 3rd.
“We had to make sure that all of the girls were prepared for a good game,” states Trinity Head Coach Anita Paone, going on to say, “They have some really strong players who play really high-level hockey.”
Holy Trinity played the entire game with two forwards on defence - due to player availability.
1st Period - CC Goal - Alex Ferguson
1st Period - HT Goal - Kristina Semren
1st Period - HT Goal - Victoria Pelley
1st Period - HT Goal - Sierra McDonald
1st Period - HT Goal - Georgia Ross
3rd Period - HT Goal - Breanna Lombardo
3rd Period - HT Goal - Tavia McLanahan
The Holy Trinity girls will go on to play against Christ the King from Georgetown in the Varsity Girls Final next Monday, April 4th, at 16 Mile Sports Complex. Puck drop is at 9:30 am.
Senior Boys Hockey
St.Thomas Aquinas (STA) (5-2-1) will host Holy Trinity (3-4-1) on Wednesday at Trafalgar Park. STA has been backed by some incredible goaltending all season long, with the team's trio of netminders playing for Oakville Midget AA. Nico Marandola and Alex Pederson have been sharing the load, while Jaxon Mersey has played a supporting role as he waits to inherit the program.
“We can play a really offensive style knowing we’ve got those guys backing us up there,” boasts Raiders Head Coach Chris Alderson, “we have some really talented guys on our first two lines,” he continues, “they could score every time out there if the opportunity presents its self.”
Puck drop is at 3:30 pm, Trafalgar Park Arena on Rebecca.
Senior Girls Volleyball
In Senior Girls Volleyball action, both Holy Trinity and St. Thomas Aquinas were knocked out of the playoffs by Assumption and Notre Dame, respectively.
Senior Boys Basketball
Sr. Boys Basketball will tip-off on Tuesday (3:00 pm) with Holy Trinity (10-1) and STA (6-5), finishing first and second in the East Division.
Holy Trinity finished as the top seed and will host Bishop Redding (5-7), whom they beat 59-47 on Thursday, March 10th.
Amare Hamilton and Wil Yamka will be looking to continue their offensive dominance, but HT boasts a really deep squad that “shares the load,” according to Head Coach Andrew Saulez, “it lets us play at a pretty high pace.”
Saulez knows he can’t look ahead of the game at hand as BR is still a very decent team, despite their record. “They are a good, athletic team; they get up and down,” continuing, “We better be ready on Tuesday.”
STA’s Boys will be at home to Notre Dame (6-6) today (3:00 pm). The two sides met in the season's first game, with Notre Dame winning that initial introduction by 4 points. For the Raiders Mikal MacMaster and Mateo Canizalez have been putting in notable offensive performances all seasons long. “I think our defence has been a team effort; that’s one of the things we’ve been focusing on all year.” according to Raiders Head Coach Joe Polizi.
Notre Dame are no pushovers with a robust inside presence, “they’ve definitely have some size inside,” exclaims Polizi, who says his team has been working on rebounding the last few weeks as they are a little undersized compared to the opponents from North Burlington.