Main photo: The Preston Heating Tyke 1 Hawks won Gold in the C/D division of the 2018 Dan Greer Tournament in Clarington (back from left) Jon Quinlan, Bonnie Flemming, Jeff Higgs; (middle row from left) Weston Earl,Cayden Hamilton, Jacob Sauve, Aiden Cremer, Oliver Hogue; (front row from left) Carter Quinlan, Quinton Cool, James Pritchard, Warren Neal, Brady Higgs, Maxime Flemming, Owen Prentice, Leif Spiers; and (lying in front) goalie Ewan Russel. (supplied photo)
The Huntsville Hawks lacrosse teams played hard last weekend both at home and on the road.
From July 13 to 15, the youngest rep team, the Invisible Fence Tyke 2 (Minor) Hawks, joined the Preston Heating Tyke 1 (Major) Hawks and the Moller Insurance Novice 1 (Major) Hawks at the 2018 Don Greer Tournament in Clarington. Back at home in Huntsville, the R&G Construction Peewee Hawks and Moose Delaney’s Midget Hawks hosted the 2018 Jack Bionda Shootout at the Canada Summit Centre with nine teams from out of town.
The Preston Heating Tyke 1 Hawks (pictured above) earned a complete weekend and brought home the Gold medal. The Hawks showed extreme skill as they won their first game 17-1 against Akwesasne 2 but experienced their first lost to West Durham 6-2. They came back out on top with another huge win 17-1 over Whitby, and took a third and final win in the round robin games against Northumberland 8-3.
The Tyke 1 Hawks then moved on to the semi-final game where they met Clarington 2 and again pulled out a solid 7-3 win. Their championship challenger team was West Durham, the only team to beat the Hawks in their earlier tight game. The Tyke 1 Hawks were determined to control the game and take the win. It was a close game, but they were successful, besting West Durham 9-7.
Assistant coach Jon Quinlan commented that the overall tournament was a good competition and that the team got better after every game which had them come out on top.
The Invisible Fences Tyke 2 Hawks participated in the C/D division and won their first game against Brampton 2 but then lost the next three games to Northumberland, Clarington 2 and West Durham.
The Moller Insurance Novice 1 (Major) Hawks team swept the weekend at the Don Greer Tournament with four wins in their round robin games: Clarington 2 (8-2), Mimico 2 (8-3), West Durham (9-3) and Oshawa 2 (6-1).
Going into the semi-final game, the Hawks played against West Durham again winning the game and moving on to the finals where they out-performed Mimico 2 and took the championship with a 9-5 win.
“For having such a small team of only twelve, our team has stuck to their game plan to come so far,” said Coach Joe O’Halloran. “We are a small little family and this weekend it showed,. They all supported each other, we had great goal-tending and all around great team play. We are gearing up for the home stretch until the provincials in August.” This was the second year for the returning Novice 1 Hawks players to win at the Don Greer tournament.”
In Huntsville at the Hawks teams’ home tournament, the Jack Bionda Shootout, the R&G Construction Peewee Hawks opened the tournament with a big 7-1 victory over top-ranked visiting team Kitchener Waterloo 2. They kept up their winning momentum beating St. Catharines 3 (6-2) and Cambridge 2 (7-1).
The semi-final game increased in intensity as the Hawks made a comeback against Six Nations to win after being down a few goals at the beginning in a close 6-5 final.
For the championship game, the PeeWee Hawks faced London 2, a team ranked much higher than Huntsville. Both teams were fighting for the win in such a close match that the game went in to double overtime with London 2 finally scoring in sudden death to take the win 4-3. The Peewee Hawks proudly accepted the Silver medal for their Division in the Jack Bionda Shootout. Coach Chad Pare said, “The boys showed tremendous heart, determination as they battled back in the final game. I learned that these boys just don’t quit, everybody stepped up and dug in. We are peaking at the right time for provincials, that’s when you are playing to win.”
The Moose Delaney’s Midget Hawks competed in a smaller tournament format and beat Innisfil 5-0 and Kawartha Lakes 4-2 which allowed them to advance straight to the final championship game. Innisfil surprised all competitors by winning the semi-final game with their short bench to meet Huntsville again in the championship game. Innisfil put up a good fight but ended up losing to the Moose Delaney’s Midget Hawks 10-6 who took the gold.
Such a great weekend for Hawks lacrosse with great strength and determination shown by all team players. Congratulations to all!
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