Four-peat
Glace Bay Panthers win Cape Breton Highland High School Rugby League championship
The Glace Bay High School Panthers continued their dominance on the local rugby pitch Wednesday, defeating the Riverview High School Rugrats 15-0 to win their fourth Cape Breton Highland league title in a row.
Charles Warren, Nathan Byrne and Dylan Burke all scored tries for the Panthers, who advance to the provincial championships June 2 and June 3 at Hants East Rural High.
Wayne Jenkins, who coached the Panthers to all four titles, said his team knew they would be in tough against the Rugrats. In fact, Glace Bay’s only loss of the past four years was a 13-7 defeat at the hands of Riverview in the second game of this season.
And despite the score, the championship game was close for most of the match, with Glace Bay up 5-0 on an early try before breaking through for two more in the final half.
“They lost one game by six points and I’ll tell you … they needed it though, they needed to be knocked down,” said Jenkins. “They knew that this team could beat them on any single day — it was just our day today.”
Jenkins said he likes his team’s chances of taking home an elusive provincial title to add to their regional banners, noting the work-to-rule situation with Nova Scotia teachers means fewer teams are competing this season,
“I think we can make the finals — we have a really good chance, just as good as any team out there. I’m hoping to bring home a provincial title this year. If not we’ll go back at ’er again next year.”
Meanwhile, in other high school rugby action, the Riverview girls routed Sydney Academy 34-5 to advance to the league championships.
Brooklyn Etheridge and Julie Ann Francois each had two tries for the Rugrats, while Maddie MacInnis and Elish Redshaw also found the end zone. Redshaw added two conversions to round out the scoring.
Katie Woodburn had the lone try for the Wildcats.
Riverview will now face either Glace Bay or Memorial in the finals. That game was played Wednesday night but the results weren’t available by press time.