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

22 - The Canadian Champion-, Tuesday, October 6,- 1998 ^ C R A Merchants die as Blues rally Photo by GRAHAM PAINE Milton Magie forwerd Jennifer Garthson (rlght) flghts for possession during the under-16 girls soccer team's League Cup finals with Ktchener Sunday. Mlton lost 2-O. See nexi page for more championship game photos. Third time not lucky for Milton By STEVE L.BLANC The Champion Always the bridesmaid, neyer the bride. Milton's under-16 girls soccer squad once again came up short in their bid to become League Cup champs - losing the title match for the third time in as many years. Hopes of breaking this trend were dashed by the Kitchener Spirit, who eked out a 2-0 victory Sunday aftemnoon at The Soccer Centre in Vaughan. ___ A pair of second-half goals told the tale in a seesaw battle, which featured precious few scoring opportuniies. *It's getting frustrating, being second best aIl the time," said coach Rob Romolo, whose club finished second to Kitchener in regular season play as well. It was a game of inches today (Sunday). "That and a couple of lucky breaks for Kitchener." The Magic's skipper suggested that early warning calîs against his players - for tactics - played a part in the outcomnea well. 'That probably had something to do wit it, when one teams gets a whole slew c wamning cails and the other team doesn't, he 'saic "But that' s how things have gone al sem son and 1 wasn't about to change our styl for the last game." Milton surrendered the gamne-winniti -see TOUGH on page 23 The Champion Ouch, that' s got to sting a littie. Fighting back from adversity Friday at Victoria Park Arena, the Jr. A Merchants got within half a heartbeat of keeping their unblemiàshed record intact. But for one final moment lady luck would ride the shoulders of Bramalea, who managed to pot the equalizer with just three- tenths of a second remaining in regulation time. Erasing Milton's only lead of the game - established with two tallies in the last six minutes- was sophomore winger Scott Neil, whose upstairs hopper bounced past Jeremy Wenzel and just a hair over the goal line. Neither side could mount much in overtime and the game ended in a 4-4 stale- mate, leaving both teams unbeaten after week three of the season. Brampton and Newmarket are the other Provincial League clubs that have not yet tasted defeat. While genuine luck favoured the hometown boys at crunch time, the Merchants were in fact every bit as fortunate to escape the night with a tie. They were blessed with a garbage goal at 4:36 of the third - when a wide-angle Je* Sed shot by Geoff Schomogyi just once on a dozen shorthanded stints. Through the early stages of play Milton just couldn't restrain themselves against the highly chippy Blues, who're still masters at drawing opponents into penalties. Captain and offensive anchor Kevin O'Flaherty was ejected in the opening 10 minutes for checking from behind, while his teammates were thrown off their game for nearly two periods. They finally regrouped down the stretch - at which time Ryan Eby cut Bramalea's lead to one on a long range blast and Jeff E Seeds bulldozed his way past two defenders and knotted things e with 4:42 left to play. Also scoring was first-year defenceman Ryan Carrigan while fellow rearguard Matt Bannan drew a pair of assists. Kyle Amyotte led the way for the Blues with a goal and an assist. Wenzel came up big aIl night, partîcularly downstairs on par- tial-screen shots, to keep his club wîthin siniking distance for the e duration of the contest. as One night later the Merchants would enjoy the latest in a series of early-season cakewalks - this time with a 7-1 shellacking of h Georgetown. of Holding Milton to one goal in the middle frame and spoiling [" Daniel Jacques' bid at back-to-back shutouts were the only mea- d-gre successes north Halton's other Jr. A club could dlaim a- Saturday. le Eby and Mike Wheelihan each scored once and added two assists while Schomogyi notched goals rive and six in another ng strong showing. .see BATLtE on page 24 CHECK OUT THE 1999 ALL-STAR LINEUP FROM TOYOTA 9 5 speed manual 1999 TERCEL CE SCOUTING,,REPORT es o s1wa ~PYETMNLPYET down rear seat Niable nm bi ul a fue l .7 w. 217 -intermittent wipers $ 100 17-1 *AMIFM cmh!1 L, tax j*17jcassette steme per mont o 8rmots ease payment OnIy $m down *body sîde mouldings includes freght & PDE :T : doIii aq**WI* i AIb 1