‘It was a battle, it was a fight,’ but Vikes repeat as rugby champs
WATERLOO — The Waterloo Collegiate Vikings are back-toback champions. But it sure didn’t come easy. Danyal Ahmad scored the game-winning try with seven minutes to play to lift WCI to a 19-12 victory over the Sir John A. Macdonald Highlanders in the championship final of the Waterloo County senior boys’ high school rugby league.
The Vikings, who beat the Preston Panthers 21-5 in last year’s final, rallied from a 12-7 halftime deficit at WCI to cap their second consecutive undefeated season in WCSSAA play.
“We lost some key players from last year and some people didn’t think we could do it again but here we are,” said Vikings co-captain Mike DiGravio.
“It’s a great feeling but we’re not done yet. We’ve got CWOSSA (Central Western Ontario) championship next week but winning this game was our goal at the start of the season.”
The Vikings and Highlanders both advance to the six-team CWOSSA tournament that will be played Tuesday and Wednesday in Brantford.
WCI will attempt to repeat as CWOSSA champion and make its second straight appearance at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations tournament.
SJAM jumped out to an early 7-0 lead in the WCSSAA final on a David Froome try and Charlie Anderson convert but WCI responded quickly with a try by Hayden Harper and a Jacob Cicci convert.
Froome added his second try just before halftime to put the Vikings in unfamiliar territory — actually trailing a rugby game.
“We just said ‘battle as a family, win or lose as a family,’ and we all pulled together,” said Vikings co-captain Mark Christopher.
“I’m really proud of the way we responded.”
WCI tied the game after the restart on a try by Femi Ilori and continued to push until Ahmad took a great pass from Christopher for the winning score.
SJAM kept coming until the final whistle, a fact both WCI captains were quick to acknowledge when asked about their opponents.
“It was a battle, it was a fight, I’m exhausted,” said Christopher. “They never gave up.” DiGravio nodded in agreement. “That’s as hard a rugby game you’re going to get,” he said. “They played great and took advantage of the chances they got and fought until the end.”
WCI downed SJAM 26-7 in a regular-season meeting.
The WCSSAA junior final was far less dramatic as the KCI Raiders rolled to a 29-0 victory over SJAM.
Cameron O’Brien led the way with a pair of tries and Wyatt Armstrong, Noah Grave s and Zeeshan Irshad added singles. Barrett Coffey kicked a convert.