Holy Cross wins COSSA AA crown
The Holy Cross Hurricanes varsity girls hockey team has made a triumphant return to competitive play.
The Hurricanes hadn’t entered a team in the Kawartha league in some time and on Monday secured their first COSSA AA championship since 2009 with a pair of dominant victories in Belleville. They thumped Bayside, 13-2, in the morning semifinals and then defeated St. Teresa’s, 5-1, in the final. Full scoring details were unavailable, but coach Craig Hulsman said Molly Farace, Katie Belk and Claire Chambers were the top scorers.
The Hurricanes were 9-1 in the Kawartha regular season and playoff action to capture the Kawartha AA title. Their lone loss was by one goal to the undefeated St. Peter’s Saints, who won the COSSA AAA title.
They also played the Saints to triple overtime at the Saints Classic, so should be competitive in their first trip to OFSAA AA in Whitby on March 19-21.
“We played some really tough games in town against St. Peter’s and I.E. Weldon, which are bigger schools, which really helped us prepare for today,” said Hulsman. “I think that was a big part of it.”
Hulsman, who was assisted by coaches Jaden Gates and Ian Murray, said Holy Cross hadn’t iced a team since prior to COVID-19 and even then it was recreational only.
“The girls came to me last year and wanted to put a team together,” said Hulsman. “We put a team together and just played in a couple of tournaments. This year, we decided as a group, the girls were involved, to try to go in the competitive stream and see how we could do. We thought we could do OK, so we didn’t want to waste the opportunity while we had such high-level girls playing. We thought we’d give it a run and it turned out pretty good.”
Hulsman said the coaches felt they had enough talent to be competitive.
“We always had a goal to win COSSA but it certainly wasn’t a guarantee. We were pretty hopeful with the girls we had,” he said.
“Teamwork was a big factor in their success. We do have some legitimate high-level players, but we always wanted to really focus on playing as a group of six, counting the goalie, when we’re on the ice,” he said. “What really helped us as we went through the year is it became very difficult for other teams to just focus on one or two players because we were committed to moving the puck and making sure everyone was involved.”
In COSSA AA boys hockey, also hosted by Bay of Quinte, both Kawartha entries were eliminated in morning semifinals. The Kawartha champion Crestwood Mustangs lost, 4-3 in overtime, to Bayside, while the Holy Cross Hurricanes were beaten, 8-0, by St. Teresa’s. Dawson Corfe had two goals and an assist for Crestwood while Zach Leeson had a goal and an assist. Terry Vokey picked up two assists with single helpers from Owen Sturge and Cormac Clowater.
Boys basketball
The No. 2 seed Kenner Rams opened the OFSAA A boys basketball championships in Welland on Monday with a 68-48 win over Maranantha Christian Academy from Windsor.
Kenner’s leading scorers were Kaveh Jalali Sohi, with 16 points, and Matthew Kathiravelu, who counted 13. The Rams played Tuesday afternoon against Downsview Secondary School from North York.