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if i is j 18 stouffville suntribune thursday feb 5 2004 stouffville suntribune sports senior spartans ice top spot in yraa east division first senior boys regular season title for hockey team by mike hayakawa staff writer the stouffville district secondary school spartans senior boys hockey team staked its claim to something that no other team in the york region athletic association eastern division could do this season it wrapped up first place the spartans accomplished this feat for the first time in the schools senior boys hockey history by defeating the fivetime defending yraa champion brother andre catholic high school cardinals 32 tuesday at mount joy arena it sure feels great spartans head coach jamie hewitt said the spartans entered the con test after a disappointing time at the prestigious father goetz classic in jviississauga last weekend playing three games in a tourna ment featuring many potential ontario federation of school athletic associationbound teams the spartans defeated denis morris catholic high school st catharines 50 but suffered a 43 overtime loss to st peters catholic high school peterborough and a 10 setback to catholic central london that record prevented the spartans from advancing into the playoffs reality sets in hewitt speculated the tourna ment performance might have served as a wakeup call for his players we hadnt lost a game since nov 14 in our tournament maybe out heads were getting a little too big and i could see it hewitt said entering the tourna ment i said to assistant coach rob edmonson that maybe the staff photosjoerd witteveen stouffville district secondary school spartan defenders matt mulder left and jordan artindale put the squeeze on brother andre catholic high- school cardinals forward ricky seymour in tuesdays york region athletic association senior boys hockey game at mount joy arena in markham the spartans won 32 and clinched first place in the east division the spartans can wrap up the best overall record in the region with a win today at the stouffville arena in their regular season finale against unionville high school best thing that could happen to us is if we lose a game as disap pointing as it was it was a good thing that we lost the kids responded well to go in and beat brother andre in their own barn thats an accomplishment in their contest against brother andre the spartans drew first blood in the opening period on a goal by justin hitchen but the cardinals rallied for two unanswered goals in the sec ond period to take a 21 advan tage the spartans however retaliat ed with two unanswered goals of their own in the final period including a gametying powerplay marker by jordan artindale with eight minutes left and one from nick hawkins with three minutes left to win the game key save by gibson helping to preserve the win was some solid netminding from shawn gibson who made a big save with his blocker in the final period when the score was knotted at 22 hewitt wasnt totally surprised with the title i felt that our team had a shot to win it at the start of the year he said this is definitely the best team that ive had here our team has all of the elements to do well im very pleased but not shocked with first place wrapped up in the east the spartans now 7- 01 still have a chance at post ing the best overall record in the yraa if they can win their final league game today when they host the unionville high school wolves at 230 pm at the stouffville arena a victory there would assure the spartans of home ice throughout the playoffs with their firstplace finish the spartans will have a first- round bye and wont play until the quarterfinals start feb 16 or 17 girls shut out in newmarket in girls hockey action the spartans ventured to newmarket tuesday to face the firstplace huron heights secondary school warriors and came out on the short end of a 20 decision the spartans now 461 will conclude their regular season today in newmarket against dr jf dennison secondary school the spartans are assured of a berth in the playoffs spartans to hoop it up the stouffville district secondary school spartans sen ior boys basketball team will host an eight- team tournament saturday starting at 8 am other teams taking part include brother andre catholic high school unionville high school sutton district secondary school aurora high school port perry high school and kenner collegiate of peterborough the final is slated to tip off at 6 pm last weekend the spartans put in a little overtime at the mentor college senior boys basketball tournament in mississauga before emerging with a 5248 win over the host team to win the friendship final gavin howe led the spartans with 15 points while kevin haddaway and curtis reesor each added eight the spartans lost two close games to cawthra 4541 and to sir winston churchill st catharines 5246 reesor was the clubs high scorer in the tournament with 32 points in three contests mike devries was clubs most valuable player for the tournament i spirit hopes to revert to winning ways against thornhill bestofseven playoff series starts tonight in stouffville the stouffville spirit hopes to open the playoffs tonight in the opposite way it ended the regular season the spirit lost five of its last six games and its final four at home to end the provincial junior a hockey league season at 27-21- 1-0- the spirit finished in third place in the north conference a spot it had been locked into for several weeks the spirit meets the thornhill major islanders 182641 in a bestofseven playoff series start ing tonight at the stouffville arena game 2 goes saturday at the thornhill community centre and game 3 will be played sunday at the stouffville arena all are 730 pm starts irs time to get serious weve got to get it together and in a hurry spirit captain michael lombardo said at prac tice ttiesday but weve got the- team here that can do it the spirit lost 63 in newmarket sunday and 52 in collingwood friday we knew the last few games of the season were pointless lombardo said following a team meeting and the guys should know the playoffs are a whole new season and by the look of things tonight they know thornhill and stouffville split their twogame regular season series winning in each others rink michael lombardo spirit captain acknowledged the team wasnt perform ing up to par in recent weeks under the complicated playoff format thornhill the sixth place team in the south conference crosses over to the north other north quarterfinals have pickering against newmarket collingwood meeting oshawa and aurora play ing the winner of last nights lindsay at port hope tiebreaker three former spirit players thornhill features three ex- spirit players goaltenders kyle zoon and steve carota and forward mitch dillon carota and future considerations were sent to thornhill at last months trade deadline for brothers john and michael duco thornhills leading scorers spirited notes as of press time game 4 had not been scheduled by the islanders spirit officials were upset their players were not granted the nor mal warmup period after a three- hour drive through snow got them to collingwood late friday the spirit was outshpt 170 in the first period but dominated the second and thirdthe thornhill community centre is located at john street and bayview avenuethornhills loss to north york sunday set up the playoff series with stouffville a thornhill win and the spirit would have been playing the couchiching terriers for the second straight year the spirit swept the terriers last year and went three rounds deep into the playoffs the terriers play the markham waxers in a series starting tomor- row in markham for more information on the spirit check the teams website at wwwstouflvillespirilcom