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www.insidehalton.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, November 24, 2017 | 22 Kevin Nagel, Oakville Beaver Sports Editor, knagel@burlingtonpost.com Sports "Connected to your Community" Knights trounce Titans with big second half in OFSAA qualifier By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff For 20 minutes it played out like the boxing matches you see in movies -- two heavyweights standing toe-to-toe exchanging roundhouse punches in the middle of the ring, waiting for the other to buckle. The Holy Trinity Titans and the St. Thomas More Knights both entered Tuesday's Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations Bowl qualifier in Hamilton ranked among the country's top 10 high school teams by Canada Football Chat. And they lived up to their billing. In the opening 20 minutes, the teams combined for six touchdown plays covering 396 yards. More's Michael Chris-Ike, who ran for 311 yards in the Hamilton Wentworth Catholic Athletic Association championship game, kicked things off against Holy Trinity by taking the ball 70 yards for a TD on the first play from scrimmage. The Titans managed to keep pace, though, and led 18-14 late in the opening half. But Trinity would be felled by an uppercut late in the half. Led by Chris-Ike, who would finish the day with 411 yards and six touchdowns, the Knights scored 23 points in the final four minutes of the half, including a back-breaking 58-yard TD pass on the final play. Forced to rely heavily on their passing game on a day where the wind was gusting up to 70 km/h, the Titans could not replicate their first-half production. Meanwhile, More continued to chew up time and yards on the ground on its way to a 58-18 win. "We hung in there but we had a couple of injuries we couldn't overcome," said Trinity coach Joe Moscato. The biggest blow to the Titans was the loss "We were OK," Rourke said. "We knew we could score, too. We knew we could get another and that gave us confidence." Another fumble recovery by Trinity led to its second touchdown. The Titans went 85 yards on three plays, capped by Rourke hitting Jayden Philips in stride for a 31-yard score. After a More three-and-out, Philips returned a punt 75 yards to the end zone to give Trinity its first lead with 4:22 left in the half. Chris-Ike continued to show impeccable timing, though, scoring a 70-yarder on More's first play. Three minutes later, he scored from 52 yards out. `Not everything works out' "It is a momentum killer," Moscato said. "We had to match them play for play and things just didn't play out in our favour." "He's a good player. He jumped on us really quick," said Phillips, one of six Grade 10 players on the senior squad. "It was a great opportunity to play with this team. I wish we'd won it all, but not everything works out." The Titans put together an impressive 10-1 season, which included a 32-27 win over Assumption four days earlier in the first Halton Catholic Athletic Association championship. Milford, who also plays slotback, caught a pair of TD passes from Rourke and Philips returned a kickoff 75 yards for a major. Niko Nikolic also had a 22-yard TD run as Trinity built a 29-7 lead. Although suffering the first loss in the last game is never easy, Moscato said his players had every reason to hold their heads high. "I'm proud of the guys. They came to play," Moscato said. "To go 10-1, be a top-20 team (peaking at No. 10), it was a great season." Holy Trinity's Jayden Philips caught this pass from Kurtis Rourke for a 31-yard touchdown in Tuesday's GHAC senior boys' football semifinal game at St. Thomas More. Two minutes later Philips returned a punt 75 yards for another major, but More advanced to the OFSAA Golden Horseshoe Bowl with a 58-18 victory. | photo by Gary Yokoyama ­ Hamilton Spectator of Kristian Milford midway through the second quarter. The Grade 12 linebacker was in on a number of stops against Chris-Ike in the early going. After More's game-opening touchdown, the Titans allowed the Knights just one first down on its next three posses- sions. Capitalizing on a fumble recovery, Trinity quarterback Kurtis Rourke hooked up with Justice McRae on a 39-yard touchdown pass. Chris-Ike would answer with an 81-yard TD run on More's next play. Holy Trinity grad Cross looking forward to playing in first Grey Cup game on Sunday By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff When the play call came in, Declan Cross recognized it immediately. The Toronto Argonauts had moved the ball down to the Ottawa Red Blacks' three-yard line. Now they were calling for a pass on first down. To that point in his career, the second-year fullback had just four career catches to his name. "You can't get too giddy. You have to treat it like any Taking on a bigger role in the Toronto Argonauts' offence this year, Oakville's Declan Cross had 37 receptions, including five touchdowns, during his sophomore campaign. | Photo by Johany Jutras ­ Toronto Argonauts other play," the Oakville native said. "You just have to focus on doing your job. You can't get too excited, otherwise you're going to act differently." Lined up on the left side, Cross went in motion to his right as the ball was snapped. Quarterback Ricky Ray faked a handoff to Anthony Coombs just as Cross cut in front of them. With the Ottawa defence momentarily frozen, Cross turned to take Ray's pass and then cut upfield to go untouched into the end zone. His first career touchdown came one day before his 24th birthday. And now as he and his teammates prepare for Sunday's Grey Cup, Cross has to feel like a kid on Christmas morning. But the Holy Trinity grad is taking a similar approach as to when he heard his number called back in July. "I'm enjoying everything, but I'm really looking forward to playing the game. This is why we play," he said. "Right now, it's only about this game. It's like all the other games didn't hap- pen. All we've been talking about is focusing on what we can do." The Argos lost both meetings with Sunday's opponent, Calgary, this season but Cross says you only need to look at last year when Ottawa won the Grey Cup against the heavily-favoured Stampeders to realize it's all about who performs on that day. Cross has been getting the opportunity to perform with the Argos this season. After being used almost exclusee Work on p. 23