The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

S Sports SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2011 31 Hawks k earn another h Tier 2 f football b ll title l with h win over Reding d By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF ERIC RIEHL / OAKVILLE BEAVER SEE YA: Loyola Hawks ball-carrier Brett Colangelo (left) breaks away from the pack during Tuesday's Halton senior Tier 2 football championship game at McMaster University. Colangelo's long run set up a Hawks touchdown in the fourth quarter, putting away a 17-6 Hawks' victory over the Bishop Reding Royals. Locals seek Vanier Cup win tomorrow Four local residents hope to have a chance to hoist the Vanier Cup tomorrow (Friday). Robert Babic, Trevor Reid, Stephen KofiAkuffo and Brandon Clarke are members of the McMaster Marauders squad that will face the Laval Rouge et Or in tomorrow's Canadian Interuniversity Sport football championship contest in Vancouver. Babic played a key role in helping McMaster advance to the Vanier Cup, scoring a touchdown in last week's 45-21 win over the Acadia Axemen in the Uteck Bowl in Moncton. The Marauders will be making their first Vanier Cup appearance in more than 40 years. McMaster, which reached the national semifinals four consecutive times from 20002003 but lost each time, is seeking its first national title. The contest will be televised live on TSN, beginning at 8:30 p.m. BARRY GRAY / METROLAND WEST MEDIA GROUP NATIONAL TITLE HOPES: Robert Babic (with ball), pictured in action earlier this season against Windsor, is one of four local members of the McMaster Marauders football team that will play in tomorrow's Vanier Cup. HAMILTON -- It might end up being the perfect bookend to James DeMelo's high school football career. In Grade 9, DeMelo joined a Hawks team that had gone 0-6 the previous season. But he and his teammates put an end to that losing skid by beating the Bishop Reding Royals in the 2008 season opener. Tuesday afternoon, in what might end up being his last game with Loyola, DeMelo rushed for 83 yards to help the Hawks down the Royals once again. This time, however, the victory earned Loyola the Halton senior Tier 2 championship. "It's kind of surreal," the Grade 12 student said following Loyola's 17-6 victory at McMaster University's Ron Joyce Stadium. "It's crazy right now. We knew we had a good team. Our juniors won the Tier 2 last year so we knew there would be good players coming in." It was a group of incoming players -- including DeMelo -- four years ago that got Hawks head coach Dan O'Hara thinking a day like Tuesday might be possible. "They showed up at spring camp and they were all keen, and ultimately they became the core of our team," O'Hara said. Loyola went 5-2 this season, with its only two losses coming in crossover games against Nelson and Corpus Christi -- the two teams who played for the Tier 1 championship on Monday. In its seven games against Tier 2 opposition, including playoffs, Loyola outscored those teams 136-39. DeMelo had already graduated to the senior squad when Loyola's juniors earned the school's first football title last year. But he got his chance to celebrate Tuesday. After the Hawks got the ball on Reding's 37-yard line to start the second quarter, Thomas Knapp handed off to DeMelo three straight times. On the third, he ran 19 yards before being pushed out of bounds just shy of the end zone. Knapp then plunged in from a yard out to give Loyola a 6-0 lead. Playing into a stiff wind, Bishop Reding conceded safeties on its next two possessions trying to gain field position and the Hawks took that 10-0 advantage into the half. Things remained that way until the fourth quarter. Brett Colangelo's 28-yard run late in the third moved Loyola deep into Royals territory. Then, on the third play of the final quarter, Knapp hit Stuart Maxwell with a nine-yard strike over the middle, upping the lead to 17-0. Knapp was primarily used at running back last season but took some snaps from centre when Loyola employed wildcat formations. Taking over at QB at halftime of last year's junior Tier 2 final, Knapp rallied the Hawks to an overtime victory. This year, he took over the starting duties. "He's so versatile," O'Hara said. "He's a really good athlete and he really started to settle into the role this year." While Knapp has grown with the program, the player who caught his TD pass wishes he had. Maxwell didn't join the team until last year when he was in Grade 12. "I've played my whole life but never in high school," Maxwell said. "I missed the sport and now I regret not playing in Grade 9, 10 and 11. But it's one of those things that once you've been away, it's 10 times better when you come back." And that decision was even sweeter as the Hawks lifted the championship trophy Tuesday. "I've never won a championship before," Maxwell said. It was the last chance for Maxwell, a super senior. But Knapp and many of the players who moved up with him from the junior squad this season will have the opportunity to defend the title, since Loyola had only seven Grade 12s on its roster. As for DeMelo, who could come back for another year at Loyola? "I don't know," he said. "I'm seriously thinking about it." -- Herb Garbutt can be followed on Twitter at @Herbgarbutt