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Oakville's Jessika Hurd and Emma Ogden helped Ontario win the girls under-16 Canadian Rugby Championship. After losing its first match of the toumament, Ontario won its next four, avenging its earlier loss by beating British Columbia 27-10 in the final. | photo submitted By Herb Garbutt Oalwille Beaver staff They discovered the sport through their families, but now Emma Ogden and Jessika Hurd are leaving their own mark on the game. The two Oakville rugby players helped Ontario score a 27-10 win over British Columbia to capture the Canadian Rugby Championship girls’ under-16 title. Ontario trailed 10-5 before scoring 22 unanswered points in the second half to claim the national cham- pionship. “We just stuck to what we know and that’s what helped us in the end was not doubting ourselves,” said Ogden, who is going into Grade 11 at St. Thom- as Aquinas this fall. Ogden was introduced to the game by her parents, who both played rugby. Her mom still coaches her Oakville Crusaders club team. Hurd got her first taste of ragby by watching her sister Taylour play at Oakville Trafalgar High School. Intrigued by the sport, Hurd started playing with the Oakville Crusaders in Grade 7. “1 thought i it would be a cool sport to uy and I fell in love with it,” she said. “I like that you're never go- ing to know the game 100 per cent. There are always things to learn.” Team Ontario certainly learned something from its opening game of the tournament, a 38-27 loss to Oakville duo win Canadian rugby title the same British Columbia team it would meet in the final. It went 4-0 from that point, shutting out Nova Scotia 50-0 and routing Alberta 49-5 to close the round-robin portion of the tournament. Alberta would prove to be a much tougher foe in the semifinals. A late Ontario try gave ita 17-12 lead, but Alberta stormed back to tie the game. In over- time, Ontario held off an early Alberta push before securing its spot in the championship game. “It was nerve-wracking. Everyone wanted to go to the final, but they were in our half more than we were in theirs,” Ogden said. “They made us work for it, but when we got that try, it was awesome. There were a lot of players tearing up.” It was the first provincial experience for both play- ers and though they didn’t know what to expect heading into tryouts, both felt they had a chance of making the team. “Because | play at OT with Dan Valley, we do high- level training. He expects a lot out of us and because we wanted to win OFSAA, so we expect a lot out of ourselves,” said Hurd, who won the provincial high school title with the Red Devils in May. “In that way it was similar with the hard work and dedication on the provincial team.” Ogden, who scored a try in Aquinas’ upset of OT in the Halton junior final, said when it gets to the Provincial level, you have to play your best. veryone there is experienced and has a great imowkege of the game,” she said. Local players fall just short of volleyball, softball medals at Canada Games Oakvilles Laura Madill narrowly missed out on a medal after Ontario was edged in five sets by New cael in the bronze- medal game at the Canada Games in Winnipe; Ontario went 5-3 at the tournament, inloing a three-set sweep of New Brunswick in round-robin pl Ontario fell behind twice in the Miata match, but won the second and fourth sets to even things up. In the deciding set, the teams were rarely separated by more than two points until New Brunswick opened up a 13-9 advantage. Ontario battled back to tie it at 13, but New Brunswick took the final two points to claim the bronze. Ontario won its first four matches without dropping a set, downing the Northwest Territories, New Brunswick, Newfound- land and Labrador and Quebec. Alberta handed Ontario its first loss in the final round-robin match, taking the victory in four sets after Ontario won the open- ing set. Ontario swept Saskatchewan in the quarter-finals 25-2, 25-19, 25-17. In the semis, Ontario lost to the eventual gold-medalists, the host Manitoba, 25-19, 22-25, 25-17, 26-24. In the bronze-medal match, Ontario had set point in the open- er only to have New Brunswick rally for three straight points and a 26-2 Onto, ‘squared the match with a 25-22 win. New Brunswick again took the upper hand with a 25-14 win, only to have Ontario again tie it rup with a 25- 19m win. . Ontario’s ‘only two losses in the Canada Games softball tourna- ment came at the worst tim: After going 9-0 in round: ‘robin play while only allowing 13 runs, Ontario dropped back-to-back decisions to British Colum- bia and Alberta to be left out of the medals. Ontario, including Oakville’s Sarah Benn and Nicole Rivait, steamrolled the competition in the round-robin, outscoring its opponents 58-13. Ontario had not even trailed until its final round-robin game, when it rallied to score a run in each of the last two innings to edge the host Manitoba. Benn scored the winning run in that game, leading off the bot- Wild advance to boys’ U16 Ontario Cup final The Oakville Wild won its Ontario Soccer Association semifinal Sunday to advanced to the Ontario Cup final. Oakville defeated the Windsor Wheels 2-1 to earn its spot in the boys under-16 tier 2 championship game. The Wild will face Mississauga Di- xie Premier, which beat North York Tecnico Ambato 4-1 in the other semifinal match. The Ontario Cup final will be Sponsored by: played Sunday, Sept. 17 at 3 p.m. at Oakville Beaver the Soccer Centre in Vaughan. ‘A Proud Sponsor of Oakville Soccer Club Week Fifteen Photo Contest Winner: Photographer: Terry Jackson Age Division: Boys U7 tom of the seventh with a base hit and coming around to score on a two-out single. After scoring at least four runs in each of its games, Ontario was held to just four hits in a 3-1 semifinal loss to B.C. Ontario had nine hits against Alberta, but couldn't push runners across the plate in a 4-1 loss. Benn, who played left field, shortstop and first base, batted .347 for the tournament (8-for-23) with a double and a triple, scored eight runs and drove in three. Rivait, acatcher, hit .278 (5-for-18) and scored two runs. REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE ic, soodi ‘ACADEMY 2017-18 SEASON SE “>? TRYOUTS @ Berton Park, Burlington SEPTEMBER 16 & 23 SEEKING ELITE LEVEL PLAYERS FOR THE FOLLOWING AGE GROUPS: GIRLS U8 (2010) 9AM GIRLS UIZ (2006) 12PM GIRLS U9 (2009) SAM GIRLS U13 (2005) IPM GIRLS U10 (2008) 10AM GIRLS U14 (2004) 2PM GIRLS Ull (2007) IAM steht te, Burloak Soccer Academy Program designed for the Elite soccer ene: wpe technical and woo uoyeyepisur mmm | YIAVaE STUAMVO | 2TOZ ‘Te ysnBny Aepsinyy | g& is equivalent to the Rep program and {actcal taining sessions 2s well as ‘each player will develop their skills and knowledge ofthe game fo the fut potential