www.insidehalton.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, August 10, 2017 | 3 8 Kevin Nagel, Oakville Beaver Sports Editor, knagel@burlingtonpost.com Sports O P O F T H E T A B L E C L A S H "Connected to yo u r Community " T Oakville Cricket Academy finishes seventh in field of 2 4 in Barbados O akville keeper M att George leaps to deny Sigma F Cin the Blue Devils' 1-0 w in last Thurs day in a League1 Ontario M en's W est D ivision match. George recorded his seventh clean sheet of the season and M att Santos scored the game's only goal in the 80th minute. The victory vaulted the Blue D evils into a first-place tie w ith Sigma F Cwith a game in hand. | Martin Bazyl - Special to the Oakville Beaver Competing against 23 other teams, the Oakville Cricket Academy's under-18 team hnished a credit able seventh place at the Sir Garheld Sobers Invitational Cricket Tournament in Barbados. In eight games the Oakville team, coached by Rue Stephenson, won hve and tied another. Sports Briefs The victories came over Queens Park of Trinidad, Dominica Com bined Schools, England Combined Schools (twice) and the Hamilton Lashley Foundation of Barbados. The Barbados National U17 Re serves played Oakville to a draw. Bryan Brown was one of the top performers for the local club, end ing with an average of 84 runs and a top score of 107. Shemar Davis, who ended the tournament with 18 wickets, had two hve-wicket hauls. Tournament ofhcials named Oakville as the winner of the most disciplined team award. Late goal gives Blue Devils win, share of first place Given a second chance, Matthew Santos made no mistake in scoring the game' s only goal as the Oakville Blue Devils handed Mississauga' s Sigma FC its hrst loss of the season. Santos beat his man oneon-one, taking a long ball off an Oakville counter-attack and beat the keeper to his right in the 80th minute. The win moved the Blue Devils into a tie for hrst place with Sigma FC in the League 1 Ontario West Division standings. Both teams now have 36 points to share top spot in the, though Oakville (1 2 -2 -0 ) has one game in hand over the Sigma FC (1 1 -1 -3 ). "Probably the most exciting game of the sea son, which we expected," said Oakville head LEAGUE1 ONTARIO Men' s West Division standings W Oakville Blue Devils 12 L 2 T 0 F 32 A 12 P 36 Sigma FC TFC III FC London Windsor TFC Stars North Mississauga SC Sanjaxx Lions ProStars FC 11 9 7 5 4 2 0 1 2 2 5 8 9 12 3 2 4 4 2 3 1 39 38 30 25 21 14 11 17 14 21 22 26 37 57 36 29 25 19 14 9 1 coach Duncan Wilde. "These were two really, really good teams that wanted to have a go at each other." Matt George and Sigma FC 's Triston Henry kept the game scoreless through the hrst half with big saves. Both keepers got some help as well. Santos beat Henry to a back pass in the 20th minute but his strike hit the inside of the post and stayed out. Meanwhile, Sigma FC hit the bar twice from close range in the opening half. With the game heating up in the second half, the Blue Devils' Al James and Sigma' s Kyle Wal ton were sent off. Santos then made up for his earlier miss with his team-leading ninth goal of the season, a total that ranks second only to Sigma' s Kadell George (10) in the division. George preserved the win by keeping the league's highest-scoring team without a goal the rest of the way, lowering his goals-against average to 0.83, also second-best in the division. "I thought in the hrst half we were very good," said Sigma FC coach Bobby Smyrniotis. "We created six very good chances and their keeper made some very good saves, and the same thing happened in the second half." The Blue Devils have a week off before play ing Aurora FC on the road Aug. 12. "We have a weekend off now, which is great, and we come back the following week end and there are some big games on the schedule for both of us in the coming weeks Little League Whitecaps finish round robin at 3-2 The Oakville Whitecaps are still alive at the Canadian Junior Little League baseball championships in Lethbridge, Alta. The Whitecaps, represen t ing Ontario at the six-team tour nament, hnished the round-robin portion of the tournament with a 3-2 record, tied for second place with two other teams behind un defeated hosts, the Lethbridge Jr. Bulls. Playoffs start today (Thursday) with the national champion being decided tomorrow (Friday). After a 19-2 win over Quebec in their hrst game last Thursday, the Whitecaps lost 14-1 to Lethbridge on Friday and 10-4 to B.C. on Sat urday before dumping Alberta 6-1 on Sunday and the Maritimes 12-2 on Monday Matthew Santos scored the game' s only goal to give the Oakville Blue Devils a win over Sigma FC, which vaulted Oakville into a tie with Sigma in the Leaguel Ontario Men' s West Division standings with a game in hand. | Martin Bazyl - Special to the Oakville Beaver so we just have to take care," Wilde said. "We have a game in hand, which might be an advantage for us, and we are losing a few players to school this week, so a little bit of reorganization, but we are prepared for that. We'll see how it goes." The Blue Devils' next home game is on Sun day, Aug. 20 at Sheridan College with Windsor TFC Stars providing the opposition at 4 p.m.