Canes unbeaten in rugby
Powerhouse Holy Cross junior girls rugby team blanks Adam Scott 40-0
The Holy Cross Hurricanes are building a junior girls rugby powerhouse in short order.
In the three years that Jake Fowler has coached the Hurricanes junior program they have compiled two unbeaten regular seasons. They capped a 6-0 schedule, during which they’ve outscored their opposition 222-10, with a 40-0 win Friday afternoon over the Adam Scott Lions at Holy Cross Secondary School.
They were also unbeaten in their inaugural season under Fowler in 2014 before losing in the COSSA final to Belleville’s Bayside. Last year, they lost in the COSSA semifinal to North Hastings.
With up to 12 girls returning this year and determined to go further, the team actually began practising together before the school year even started.
“You never know until you start to play how good it will go, but I knew losing in the COSSA semifinal stung,” said Fowler, who enlisted the help of retired long-time Adam Scott rugby coach Brian Greer, on the sidelines. “I knew the girls were coming back focused. We started talking about getting back to COSSA right from the first practice.”
Laura Sicker scored three tries against the LIons with singles to Maddy Dimock, Leah Davis and Rachel King. Kylie Fife kicked five converts.
They dominated the Lions from the opening drive scoring early in building a 35-0 half-time lead.
Sicker says hard work and commitment have got them this far.
“We were even out here before school started in the summer so to see everyone getting better and enjoying the sport they play has been awesome,” said Sicker.
“We have commitment, do a lot of hard work and we have discipline,” she said. “We’ve been out here every day after school for two hours running our practices like crazy.”
Fife said they’re a group that perseveres.
“We’ve had injuries, we haven’t had any subs and our team fights through the hard times and continues on as a team, together as one,” Fife said.
The record is a source of pride for the girls.
“To be undefeated with Holy Cross only having a rugby team for the past three years, including this one, is pretty awesome,” Sicker said.
“We had a pretty good team last year but we had a lot of new girls come out from Grade 9 so we weren’t expecting this good of a team,” Fife said. “We’ve worked through it and our team is pretty good now.”
Fowler said having an experienced group certainly helps.
“They’ve been a very committed group and the leaders have led,” he said.
Playoffs begin Tuesday with Holy Cross facing Cobourg’s St. Mary’s Thunder. The Kawartha final will be Thursday. Fowler says that’s when the games have real meaning.
“If we lose the first game on Tuesday they’ll have nothing to show for all their hard work,” he said. “We were the fourth seed last year and TASSS was the first seed and we beat them. So it’s a valuable lesson to never overlook another opponent and always be ready to play.”
“Playoffs will be hard,” Sicker said. “I have a feeling win or lose, obviously we’re hoping for a win, we’ll play until we drop. We’re the type of team that works together and we won’t let each other down.”