Pagans finish season with a playoff win
Peterborough squad has strong season in new-look Marshall league
Considering the level of opposition, the 2019 season may have been the best ever for the Peterborough Pagans.
In 2018, the Pagans competed in Ontario’s highest division for the first time, the former Marshall Premier League, and were humbled with a 2-10 record.
They expected to be demoted until Rugby Ontario reorganized the two Marshall leagues into one with East and West Divisions.
Playing again against the province’s premier amateur clubs, the Pagans finished second in the East with a 22-6 combined First and Second team record as both pitched 11-3 regular season results.
With the McCormick Cup playoffs occurring in the fall, Peterborough lost 20 players to college and university squads, and some GTA teams gained players with the end of the Major League Rugby season. This meant the Pagans were in tough. They lost one-sided games to Toronto Scottish, who they beat early in the season, and Brantford to fall out of championship contention.
They concluded their campaign with a thrilling 31-28 win over Toronto’s Balmy Beach on Saturday at Nicholls Oval. Pagans head coach Aaron Stinchcombe says the hope is that as current OCAA and OUA players graduate they’ll commit to remaining with the Pagans so come fall they have a full roster capable of a run at the Cup.
“We have to change the cultural focus of our team a bit,” said Stinchcombe. “We finished fifth in the province this year when you put it all on paper in terms of our record. It needs to be a focus that we’re not just a good regular season team. We’re one of the top teams in the province and we need to start realizing that and putting our efforts in the fall so we can realistically compete for a McCormick Cup title. That’s the goal moving forward.”
What is encouraging is the influx of youth from the U19 program making an instant impact the past couple of seasons, players like Cam Wilson, Brandon Ferguson, Steve Commerford, and even players either fresh out of high school like Kal Sager and Haedn Moher or still in high school like Jake Zajac and Kyle Milburn. They’ve complemented veterans like captain Alex Haystead, Trevor Kidd, Jimmy Taylor and Andy Watson.
It’s created depth the club has never seen, said Stinchcombe.
“Our Second team was really good this year so any time we needed a player to come up they understood the system and knew how to play. It was beneficial to us and allowed us to play a lot of players at the First team level and have continued success,” he said.
The Pagans grabbed an early 19-0 lead before Balmy Beach rallied for a 21-19 halftime lead. The Pagans scored two tries to lead 31-21 before Balmy drew within a penalty kick.
The visitors looked like they might grab the win getting over the try line in injury time but before they could touch it down Haystead stripped the ball and took it to ground as the final whistle blew to preserve the win.
Tyler Barker, Duncan White, Brendan Sloan, Ferguson and Reece Honey scored tries. Josh Boyles kicked three converts.