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Matt Babel shakes off his slumber to steal win By STEVE LeBLANC Special to The Champion Matt Babel woke up from a game-long slumber just in ime to keep is Mustangs' dreams for a regional titie alive Tuesday aftemnoon. t Milton District High's top hoopster was a mere sbadow of his usual dominating self through most of quarterfinal play against the Blakeiock Tigers. Connecting on juot three shots and very few passes in the tirat haif, he was benched for much of the third quarter. The reality check seems to have served im well. Retumning with a vengeance, Babel maae three big defensive steais, sank a field goal, made good on two fouI shots and amassed nine total points in the iast five minutes of play to gain MD a 42737 come- back victory. "My head just wasn't in it early on. After bombing these guys (Tigers) in the regular season, I just didn't expect such tough competition today," said Babel. Also stepping things up at cnanch time were Rob McCall and Dave Winter, who each it a three-pointer aud forced a cou- ple of turnovers. H1indered by foui trouble and a lack of focus, the 'Stangs trailed afier each quarter and as late as the three-minute mark. A four-point first quarter marked their worst start of the season. Blakelock'sbvight advantage didnt help matters cither. While perhaps not at their peak, Sean Postma and Craig O'Neii had major problems under the boards against twin towers Tiro Cooper and Velomir Rodinovic. Babel tinished the game with 17 points while Winter had 15. MD traveled to Buriington yesterday to battle the Nelson Lords. Should they have won, they'li vie for the Halton crown Tuesday aftemnoon at Sheridan Coilege. MD midgets trimmed A lacklustre finish proved -to be the midget Mustangs' undoing Tuesday, as they feil 44-42 to the Georgetown Rebels in quarterfinai play. G'town trailed througb al three quarters - by as much as 12 at times - but pulled off a 20-6 final frame, hitting six of eight from the line. Jiro McCollum led offensively for MD with 19 points. Chipping in 10 was Dan Cummings. In other north Halton batties this week, MD' s senior girls volleybali team was out- distanced 13-15, 15-6, 9-15 by Georgetown while the Mustangs' hockey tearo feul 3-1 to the Rebeis in first-round playoff action. TheCapacdian Champion, Tiqesday, Februar 27,1997 -19 Nothing breaks tension like win After stressing out coach Tony Winiarz with three straigbt one-goal decisions (two wins and a loss), the single A major peewees decîded to sait away their first-round victory with a convincing 8-2 rout of Gecorgetown last Thursda\. Mike Winiarz engineered the senies-ending blowout with a remaîkable four-goal output. Adding singles were Blair Britton, Wes MeDougaîl, Thomas Patrick and David Spahich while Chris Strank contributed two assists. James Kaiser set Milton up for the series win with clutch goaltending that earned them a 5-4 game-three squeaker. Winiarz tallied twice to kick-start the offence and added a third for good measure down the stretch. Also scoring were McDougall and Mitch Boisvenue. The north Haltun clubs split the tirst two games by 4-3 and 3-2 scores - each sinking late goals to, secure the win. Patrick provided the heroics in game one with an overtime goal while Britton, Adam Haller and Chris Sato counted the other markers. Georgetown's winner came with 36 seconds left in regulation time, after Spahich and Connor Sweeney had erased their two previous leads. The Centricut Canada-sponsored crew will now bat- dle the winner of the Newmarket-Port Perry series. Peewees finish with solid sweep The AAA minor peewees closed out the regular sea- son last week witb a two-game sweep of Guelph. They fought back from a pair of one-goal deticits to Rep Hockey gain a 3-2 victory in their initial tilt. Kyle Quincey fired the winner with 31 seconds remaining. His team enjoyed a man-advantage at the time. Evening the count earlier on were Marcus Goencz and Danny Syvret, while each assisted on the other's goal. David Cianfrini and Daniel Powers tumned in robust efforts as well. Halton didn't escape the night completely unscathed however, as Chad Henry suffered a season-ending broken coliarbone. .Ian Boileau and Rory Johnston split the goaltending duties in a follow-up 2-0 shutout over Guelph - with Johnston seeing a littie more rubber during the second haîf of the game. Rock-solid defence was provided by Tim Jasperson and Nat Wicken, who made a notewortby retum after a long layofi from a broken leg. Goencz and Syvret registered the goals. with Brett Robinson picking up two assists. The Hurricanes finished the regular season with a 20-8-8 record and now battie Oakville in first-round, best-of-five playoff action. Midgets rally to tie The Halton Hurricane AAA midgets got off on the wrong foot in thefr OMHA playoff opener at Gordon esee COMEBACK on page 20 Grad wins bronze medal E.C. Drury alumnus Chris Denich has wrestled is way to a provincial bronze medal and qualified for the CIAU champi- onships in is rookie season with the University of Guelph. The 19-year-old grappler dropped a heartbreaking first-round match in over- time to number one seed Bob O'Brien of Brock. He then faced former national champ Igor Mozetic of McMaster, scoring a tbree-point tbrow to even the count and winnnng in overtime. Placing second behind Mozetic after round-robin competition, Denich out- pointed Lakehead's Aaron Coutts in the bronze medal match wile Mozetic went on to take gold from Lester B. Pearson grad Ken Spurey. Joining Denich at the nationals wili be feiiow Drury grad and Guelph teammate Victor Sprenger, wbo moved up a weight class to heip fil bis school's roster. He too scored bronze with a 2-1 record - losing oniy to national senior bronze medalist Justin Beauparlant of Lakehead - to earn bis second straight CIAU appearance. Frank Cavallo, wrestling two weight classes up for Guelph, and Grant Heffron of Brock both went 0-2 but showed strong- ly, losing close decisions to top opponents. Rob Cheskey bas conquered a nation and is now ready to take on the world. The 43-year-old Miltonian, of recent cyclîng fame, will be switching gears and competing at next week's World Masters Cross-Country Ski Cbampionsbips in Lake Placid. A former provincial medalist, Cbeskey wiIl battie skiers from 30 other countries including Holland, Finland. Japan. Âustralia, Italy and the host United States in the 40-44 year age group. This will be is frst appearance at the world cbampionship. The international sbowcase will feature 15, 30 and 5-kilometre races. LMMER àCVC&P JULY 20-AUOUST 28 1 WURK CAMPS iNA? INCLUDE: *Hockey kitts training camps *Hgh performance forwards *Pwerskaiing and gsatscorîsg camps and defencemen camps Arrive t a.m pick-sp 530 pm. *Vdeon and 4-hrs. on ice N AI camps inctsde osidoor instructon per day i *. actvles Aitpvrn ke pace Ilbo "seaî af the ar' ESPORTS OAKVLLE mn m ~ 4 NHL rinks CALL NOW FOR SPORT nSs Centre A FREE BROCHURE GIEV andE m8r5-699, MIL.234 Look outside. Soon the view wiII be different. Let me put our systems ta work and find the perfect new home for you. A new view awaits you. Milton Minor Basebail Association mec. P.O. Box 221 Milton, Ontario L91 4N9 T-BALL HARDBALL Born In Born In Squirt 1992 Bantam 1983/84 Junior 1991 Midget 1981/82 Rookie Bail 1989/90 Juvenile Rep. 1979 Mosquito 1987/88 Juvenile House 1977/80 Pee Wee 1985/86 Junior Rep. 1977 ~ First time registrants must provide Birth Certificates. For more information cal[: MMBA Hotline 876-2288 Any registration accepted after March 15. 1998 wiII be subject to an additional 11:00Oam -4:00Opm"Î Cheskey to tackle new sport cross-country skiing beekons