Raiders hand Pats first defeat
Keira Federinko goes about her business for the Saint Paul Patriots without much fanfare.
The 17-year-old, Grade 12 student isn’t the fastest, most vocal, or even the speediest player on the court, but that doesn’t prevent her from filling a vital role for the Patriots.
“I like to call her the quiet force,” Patriots coach Kristen MacDonald said, after the Patriots dropped a 41-32 decision to the Holy Cross Raiders in a Niagara Catholic Athletic Association senior girls basketball game played at Holy Cross. “Sometimes there’s other splashier athletes and you know they’re on the court, but last game we played we played against St. Mike’s she scored 22 points.
“She’s a solid, very fundamentally sound player and she’s very reliable so you kind of always just trust her to do what she needs to do.”
Federinko, who plays at the club level for the Niagara Red Raiders, is thrilled to be back on the court after all the down time due to the COVID pandemic.
“It’s been so much fun,” she said. “Our team has been slowly getting together. We’re still trying to improve and work on new things but we’re getting there and the coaches as helping us a lot.”
Federinko paced the Patriots with nine points — all scored in the first quarter — before fouling out with under a minute to play.
She said the feeling around the school wasn’t quite the same without sports.
“It’s a lot different,” she said. “You get that team bond and everything that goes on there.”
She enjoys her role as point guard and running the offence for the Pats.
“You have to have good ball handling and vision of the court,” she said.
MacDonald has been thrilled to see so much enthusiasm on the courts after last season was wiped out
“My goodness, the amount of adrenaline, it’s been through the roof,” she said. “All of these games feel like an OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) final right now.
“These girls are so into it, every game, it feels like it’s going to be the last one played for a while so it’s very exiting.”
MacDonald wasn’t quite sure what to expect as such a lengthy layoff.
“I know that we have a very dynamic team, but we didn’t really know what the competition was going to look like because we’ve been off for so long, and I was even off the year before that,” she said. “So far, so good. The competition has been solid, and these girls haven’t skipped a beat. Maybe a little sloppy at times but they’ve had two years off.”
The Patriots suffered their first loss after two wins.
“We definitely missed our opportunities, which makes the game a little bit more chaotic and hard to recover,” MacDonald said. “If you sink those easy baskets, and the confidence builds, you can maybe slow it down to be more of our pace. But Holy Cross has a tremendous spirit and I think definitely helps.”
The Raiders improved to 2-1 after splitting their first two games of the season.
“I just continue to just tell them positivity, tons of energy, and what comes from the bench, it’s transferred on to the court,” Holy Cross coach Erin Gauthier said.
“They had it all today.”
STATS PACK
Raiders 41 Patriots 32
BPSN Star of the Game: Holy Cross guard Tessa Vahrmeyer with 11 points.
For the Holy Cross Raiders: Vahrmeyer 11; Emma Hemphill 12; Mairead Newhouse 10; Tawnie Cunningham 5; Sophia Franklin 2; Emma D’Epiro 1.
For the Saint Paul Patriots: Keira Federinko 9; Michaela Carbonara 8; Hanna Dino 7; Sam Dino 6; Brooke Lennox 2.
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