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Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports W O R L D S T A G E by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor 9 | Wednesday, June 25, 2014 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com "Connected to your Community" Buzz wins appeal, seeded second in East The Oakville Buzz doesn't begin the playoffs until this weekend, but the junior B lacrosse team has already earned its first victory of the post-season. Oakville has been awarded the second seed in the East Conference after winning an appeal to the Ontario Lacrosse Association. The Ontario Junior B Lacrosse League had initially ruled the Buzz finished third in the East. Oakville will open its first-round, best-offive playoff series with the seventh-ranked Newmarket Saints Friday at Oakville's Toronto Rock Athletic Centre, beginning at 8 p.m. Finishing second also guarantees the Buzz home-floor advantage in the second round of the playoffs if it is victorious in Round 1. "We are obviously happy to be awarded second seed as we felt that was where we ended up based on the rules the OLA junior B league was following," said Buzz general manager Ken Gillies. "Home floor is always important in the playoffs, especially with the series being short best-of-fives in all rounds." The Buzz, Akwesasne Indians and Halton Hills Bulldogs all concluded the regular season tied for second in the East with 16-4 records. Oakville was awarded second because it had a better goal average (goals for, divided by goals for plus goals against) in head-to-head games between the teams this season (0.56). Akwesasne beat out Halton Hills for third in the East, 0.49 to 0.37. The league had initially ruled the goal average tie-breaker should not apply because the teams did not play an equal amount of games against each other during the regular season. Division rivals Oakville and Halton Hills met twice (the Buzz won both contests) but each played the Indians just once (the Buzz lost, the Bulldogs won). Instead, the league enforced the third tie-breaker (goal average in all games), which ranked Halton Hills ahead of Oakville and Akwesasne, respectively. "As (the OLA constitution) is written, it doesn't say anything about unbalanced schedules, so you can't arbitrarily remove (rules) because of unbalanced schedules," Gillies said Monday, before the Buzz's appeal was successful. "We'll fight it on principle alone." Attempts to obtain comment from the OJBLL were unsuccessful. Oakville was also the champion of the South East Division, thanks to its 2-0 record against Halton Hills. The three division winners in each conference, however, are not given priority when it comes to seeding. This was the second consecutive year, and third time in seven seasons, there has been confusion regarding the Buzz's first-round playoff schedule. Last year, the Buzz finished fourth in the East but faced sixth-place Mimico -- rather than fifth-place Nepean -- in the opening round of the playoffs. That ruling by the OJBLL was reportedly based on logistics, given the lengthy distance between Oakville and Nepean. In 2008, a dispute between Buzz and Akwesasne over scheduling led to the fifth and deciding game of their firstround series being contested on a neutral floor in Bowmanville. NOTES: Oakville defeated Newmarket 15-8 and 12-2 in regular-season play... Following Friday's series opener, Newmarket will host Game 2 Sunday. The series then resumes July 4 in Oakville for Game 3... The Buzz won its final two games of the season last weekend, 16-10 over the Orillia Kings Friday and 14-5 over the Mississauga Tomahawks Saturday. Foster Cuomo had a hat trick versus Orillia; Keyan McQueen, Eddie Renaud and Robert Hudson each scored twice; and Jimmy Shea, Troy O'Donnell, Colton Watkinson, Ryan Sullivan, Liam Corbett, Sam Neeb and Josh Morton added singles in support of winning netminder Errol Spring. Cuomo scored four times in the win over Mississauga, when Andrew Kew, Renaud and McQueen each potted a pair. Also scoring were Ryan Sullivan, Matthew Kim, Neeb and Shea. Josh Falkenstern notched the victory in net... Kew won the Buzz team scoring title, ranking 22nd in the league with 75 points (including 40 goals) in 18 games. Canadian women's wheelchair basketball team member Melanie Hawtin (foreground) eyes the ball during an exhibition game last week against the United States. The T.A. Blakelock grad has seen floor time in each of Canada's first four games at the women's wheelchair basketball championships at Ryerson University's Mattamy Athletics Centre in Toronto, including 20:37 of action Monday in a 64-53 loss to Germany. Canada took a 3-1 record into its final preliminary-round game last night (Tuesday) against Great Britain. | photo by Andrew Francis Wallace -- Toronto Star Two more narrow losses for Sr. A Rock Close games continue to be unkind to the Oakville Rock. The local senior A squad dropped to 1-5 on the Major Series Lacrosse season with another pair of tight losses over the past week, including a 9-8 defeat at the hands of the Brooklin Redmen Monday at Toronto Rock Athletic Centre. The Rock, which also fell 7-5 in Six Nations Saturday, has lost all of its games by two goals or less -- including two overtime decisions. Rob Hellyer had a hat trick, Jeremy Noble added two goals and an assist, and Shayne Adams tallied and set up two goals for Oakville against Brooklin. Brad Gillies and Ethan O'Connor added singles for the Rock, and Nick Rose made 26 saves in a losing cause. Oakville was shorthanded six times and enjoyed just one power play. In Saturday's loss to Six Nations, Stephan Leblanc (three goals, one assist), Hellyer (goal, three assists) and Jacob Ruest (three helpers) provided most of the Oakville attack. Adams also tallied and Rose stopped 47 of 54 shots, but Six Nations outscored the Rock 4-0 in the final period. The Rock visits Brooklin tonight (Wednesday) and is home to the Peterborough Lakers next Monday (June 30) for an 8 p.m. start at TRAC.