Cyclone edged in SOSSA semifinals
The E.L. Crossley Cyclone girls hockey team saw its excellent season come to an end Tuesday with a 1-0 loss to the Holy Cross Raiders in the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association A/AA semifinals in Fonthill.
Alicia Juras’ goal halfway through the second period stood up as the game winner for the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association (Zone 2) champions from St. Catharines.
“It was obviously a close, hard-fought battle between two teams and it was a battle of the goalies,” Crossley head coach Kim Yallup said. “They have the one girl who plays junior hockey and she got away on a bit of a breakaway. Our goalie made the first stop but unfortunately the second stop didn’t happen.”
There wasn’t much to choose from between the Raiders and the Zone 3 champions Cyclone.
“It was evenly matched,” Yallup said. “They knew our best girls and we knew their best girls and we tried to shut each other out. I am very proud of our girls.”
After going unbeaten in Zone 3 play for the first time in school history, E.L. Crossley defeated Cayuga in a sudden-death shootout to advance to the SOSSA championships.
“We have some excellent players and a really good team but unlike other teams, we don’t have a team of travel players,” Yallup said. “We have a mix of house league and travel players and everyone played their roles, played as a team and trusted each other.
“That made the difference because when you play as an individual it doesn’t go well.”
The Cyclone will only lose two players to graduation and Yallup expects to ice a strong squad again next season.
“I think we will be about the same or maybe even better,” she said. “I had a couple of girls in Grade 9 who didn’t come out because they were afraid and they are also good players.”
One of Crossley’s two graduating players, Kaitlyn DeRuiter, saw her career come to an end Tuesday.
“I’m alright,” the 17-year-old said. “It’s upsetting but it was a good year. We have a lot of strong girls on the team and everyone worked together.”
The Grade 12 student said a number of factors made the Cyclone successful in the 2019-20 season.
“People were committed and everyone came out and tried their best,” DeRuiter said. “People who had to take their turn to sit sat. I had to do that too in Grade 9 and it was everyone working together to get it done.”
DeRuiter would have loved to make the SOSSA final but it wasn’t meant to be.
“We worked hard but we just couldn’t get it in the net,” she said. “There were some unlucky shots but there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Members of the Zone 3 championship team, coached by Yallup, John Piccolo, Kyle Hingley, Jordan Lew and Chelsea Weir, were Olivia Abrunze, Meganne Bachur, Maiya Bolibruck, Emily Breitenbach, Samantha Carmichael, DeRuiter, Marin Green, Molly Hildebrandt, Paige Keus, Julia Natale, Summer Ort, Camryn Pelletier, Kylee Ring, Makenna Secord, Isabel Song, Sarah Swayze, Abigail Thibodeau and Payton Veld.
