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

22 stouffville suntribune thursday feb 26 2004 stouffville suntribune sports spartan seniors rally twice to earn firstever berth in york hockey final sdss to meet cardinal carter in bestofthree set with the best overall record in the york region athletic association it might be assumed the stouffville district secondary school spartans sen ior boys hockey team would blaze an easy trail into the final the spartans did manage to secure their firstever berth in the bestofthree champi onship which begins tomorrow at the stouffville arena but it wasnt an easy task facing the markham district high school marauders in a bestofthree semifinal series the spartans were upended in the series opener friday 53 in stouffville in the second game monday at mount joy arena in markham the spartans were on the brink of elimination as they went into two periods of sudden death overtime before emerging with a 43 victory with all of the marbles on the line tuesday at stouffville arena the spartans were forced to play catchup hockey for twothirds of the game before emerging with a 64 victory and a date with the cardinal carter catholic high school celtics aurora in the final after fridays first game the series resumes tuesday at bond staff photosjoerd witteveen markham district high school marauders goalkeeper matt chase stops this scoring attempt off the stick of stouffville district secondary school spartans chris flanagan during action in fridays fork- region athletic association senior boys hockey semifinal game at the stouffville arena although the spartans lost 53 they rallied to win the next two contests in the bestofthree series 43 in overtime monday and 64 tuesday to earn a berth in the finals against cardinal carter catholic high school aurora the best-of- three series begins tomorrow at stouffville arena at 1 pm and resumes at bond lake arena tuesday the guys just dont quit they kept plugging away they dont panic lake arena at 2 pm a third game if required would return to stouffville arena at a date yet to be determined as of press time the guys certainly dont make things easy said jamie hewitt spartans head coach in explaining how his club managed to overcome adversi ty hewitt said it stems from the character it developed through out the season this was clearly evident in the two victories in mondays second game the spartans could easily have folded the tent when the marauders tied the game with just under one minute remain ing in regulation time to force overtime the spartans however regrouped and eventually won the game in the second five- minute suddendeath over time session on a goal from gabe barnett and just moments after the marauders failed to cash in on a goal mouth scramble at the other end of the rink thirdperiod rally continuing to exhibit their resolve in tuesdays game the spartans overcame onegoal deficits through the first and second period and erupted for two quick goals within the first minute of the third period to take the lead for good the guys just didnt quit they kept plugging away they dont panic hewitt said they got the job done theyre a very committed group and try to play within our system everything you ask of them they do matt mulder scored twice for the spartans in tuesdays deciding game while mark sullivan barnett jordan artindale and chris flanagan added singles also scoring for the spartans th mondays dramatic victory were flanagan corey tanaka and nick hawkins norm fretz jordan smalley and josh spang accounted for the spartans goals in the first game hewitt was also quick to praise the work of goalie shawn gibson throughout the series especially in luesdays game in the third period in which he stopped a breakaway with the spartans precariously hanging onto a 43 lead celtics will be tough foe looking ahead to the final hewitt said it wont be easy to defeat the celtics a team that finished first in the west divi sion the two teams are familiar with each other having met two times in tournament play each team posted a victory theyre a very talented team hewitt said of the celtics they did well in the father goetz tournament and we didnt theyve played a lot of hockey more than we have this year for us to win we have to play systems that weve taught the them spartan seniors spike third atyraaplaydowns the stouffville district secondary school spartans sen ior girls volleyball team posted a thirdplace finish at tuesdays yraa playdowns at stouffville district secondary school after defeating toronto district christian high school 20 the spartans lost matches to aurora high school who fin ished first in the pool and vaughan secondary school by identical 20 scores unionville high school and huron heights were the top two teams from the playdowns and will meet in fridays final at huron heights the spartans however will face sutton district high school for the yraa aa title today at sutton the winner will meet the lake ontario secondary school athletic association aa winner for the right to earn a berth at the ontario federation of school athletic association aa playdowns spartan girls fielding award at school board meeting the stouffville district secondary school spartans girls field hockey team will be recognized by the york region athletic association today the defending yraa cham pions were given the sports manship award during their participation- at the ontario federation of school athletic association championships in early november the spartans will be hon oured during the yraa boards meeting spartans to hold court the stouffville district secondary school senior boys basketball team will tip off their yraa tier two playoff schedule friday with a road game at unionville high school starting at 4 pm hurricanes capitalize on spirit miscues stouffville trails series 20 third game tonight in newmarket its not a mustwin for the stouffville spirit tonight but its darn close the spirit trails the newmarket hurricanes 20 in their bestofseven provincial jr a hockey league north conference semifinal they can lose tonight game time 730 at the ray twinney arena in newmarket but would then need the unlikely scenario of four straight wins over an older and healthier newmarket squad game 4 will be played friday at 730 pm in stouffville players from the whitchurchstouffville minor hockey association and markham- stouffyille girls hockey association wearing their team jerseys will be admitted free if necessary game 5 will be played sunday in newmarket with game 6 monday in stouffville and the sev enth game tuesday in newmarket the spirit lost 52 sunday at home in game 2 despite outshooting newmarket 2624 jordan mabley scored and then assisted on jake van allens goal for the spirit in front of a seasonhigh crowd of 600 at the stouffville arena the score was tied 11 after the first period and newmarket led 31 after two the spirit thought it had made it 32 but a goal was waved off when a newmarket player pushed the net off its pegs an emptynet goal in the final minute completed the scoring i think our team has played pret ty well spirit head coach brian perrin said whats hurting us is our lack of maturity and newmarket has been able to capitalize on those mis takes but our focus has to remain posi tive a goal here or there and we could be leading the series 20 for more information on the spirit log on to wwwstoufmllespiritcom jordan mabley stouffville native scores a goal and earns an assist for spirit in sundays 52 loss against newmarket