24 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2010 Hawks stunned by Notre Dame in baseball playdowns By Adam Johnston SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER STRIKER STRIKES THRICE: Holy Trinity's Dylan Marcus (in foreground) brings the ball up the field while Oakville Trafalgar's Alex Roberts (back, left) and Trinity's Josip Kapusin look on. Marcus scored three goals for Trinity, leading the Titans to a 5-0 win over OT in Tuesday's Halton senior boys' soccer AAAA final in Milton. NIKKI WESLEY / OAKVILLE BEAVER The Loyola Hawks boys' baseball team had a nearperfect regular season. The Hawks finished first in the Volpe Division with a 6-0 record. In fact, they allowed only a single run all season -- in their first game, a 17-1 drubbing of Bishop Reding. They dominated their opponents this season by a combined score of 67-1. So the relative ease in which Loyola discarded its opposition this season had to make the decisive 16-4 loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in Tuesday's regional playdowns at Glen Abbey Park sting all the more. The loss eliminated the Hawks from Prentice Cup provincial tournament contention. Loyola will now have to settle for shooting for a regional championship, which has its own playoffs. "Notre Dame is a pretty good team and they played very well," said Hawks coach Dave McNamara. "On the other hand, that's probably the worst game I've been around since I've been coaching at our school. "From the pitchers out, we just didn't have it. We made uncharacteristic physical errors in the field, we made uncharacteristic mental errors... all the way around, we were just not very sharp at all." McNamara was at a loss to explain why his team came up with its worst effort of the season in its most important game to date. "I don't want to say they weren't ready to play, because they were excited. I don't want to say they were nervous to play, and I don't think they were overconfiSee Hawks page 26 Striker's three goals leads Titans past OT By Ryan Glassman SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER MILTON -- Holy Trinity Titans senior boys' soccer head coach Angelo Sottana describes striker Dylan Marcus as being somewhat "unlucky" when it comes to goal scoring. But after watching Marcus's performance in the Halton AAAA final Tuesday against the Oakville Trafalgar Red Devils, you couldn't possibly understand how that would be the case. Marcus's natural hat trick propelled the Titans to not only a 5-0 victory at Lions Sports Park in Milton, but a berth in tomorrow's (Friday's) Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference [GHAC] finals -- where a victory would send Trinity to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) tournament. "It's one of his best games," Sottana said. "He's a very solid player but for him to score three goals, it's a breakout game for him. He came out big today." From the match's first whistle, the Titans -- who had ended their regular season on May 17 with a 3-2 loss to the Red Devils at Oakville Trafalgar -- came charging at OT goalkeeper Matt Smith. Josip Kapusin found the back of the net less than 10 minutes in for the early 1-0 lead. Marcus would net the next three before Ryan Maheu added a marker of his own late. Sottana pointed to his team's fast start and its ability to keep the ball away from the Red Devils as reasons for the lopsided victory. "We're a possession-type team and we were able to move the ball on them," he said. "We got a couple of quick goals and it deflated Oakville Trafalgar quite a bit." See Devils page 26