Feb. 5 local sports report: OUA wrestling: Niagara JUEL basketball; Welland Tigers hockey
The Brock wrestling program continues to roll along.
At last weekend’s Ontario University Athletics wrestling championships at the University of Guelph, Brock’s women won their fifth straight OUA title while the men won for the fourth straight year. Brock’s men have won 21 titles overall while the women are at 18 and counting.
“There’s some good competitors in this group and the kids fought hard today,” said Brock head coach Marty Calder, who was named OUA men’s and women’s coach of the year. “We lost a total of seven starters from a year ago between our men’s and women’s teams, so it was great to see some of the rookies step up and perform well.”
Brock’s Hannah Taylor was named the outstanding female wrestler at the meet.
Winning gold for Brock on the women’s side were: Governor Simcoe grad Kristina McLaren, 51 kilograms; Emily Schaefer, 55 kilograms; Taylor, 59 kilograms; Skylar Grote, 67 kilograms; and, Darrion Sterling, 72 kilograms;
Earning silver for Brock on the women’s side were: Daina Armstrong, 63 kilograms; and, Shauna Kuebeck, 82 kilograms.
Winning gold for Brock on the men’s side were: Garrett Saunders, 54 kilograms; Ligrit Sadiku, 57 kilograms; Christopher McIsaac, 65 kilograms; Cruiz Manning, 72 kilograms; Jevon Balfour, 76 kilograms; Clayton Pye, 90 kilograms; A.N. Myer product Richard DesChatelets Jr., 100 kilograms; and, Calvin Daum, 120 kilograms.
Earning silver medals for Brock on the men’s side were: Joseph Martin, 61 kilograms; and, Roch Provost, 68 kilograms.
Mining bronze for Brock on the men’s side was Ty Bridgewater at 82 kilograms.
NIAGARA JUEL PERFECT
The Niagara JUEL girls basketball team opened the season with three straight victories.
Contributing in a 64-41 victory over Blessed Sacrament were: Kaley DeMont, 10 points; Ally Sentance, nine points; Elle Cooney, nine points; and, Olivia Kreiger, six points. All 12 players scored for Niagara.
Leading the way in a 71-65 victory over the London Ramblers were: Tori Rigas-DiDomenico, 14 points and five rebounds; DeMont, 12 points, two rebounds; Sydney Grummett, 11 points, four rebounds, four assists; Molly Taylor, eight points, three rebounds.
Performing well for Niagara in a 57-43 victory over the Niagara Girls Basketball Academy were: DeMont, 11 points, two rebounds; Rigas-DiDomenico, 10 points, seven rebounds; Elle Cooney, eight points, four rebounds; and, Madison O’Brien, five points, four rebounds
Replying for the NGBA were: Chloe Peters, 11 points, four rebounds; Viktoria Cubelic, eight points, 15 rebounds; and, Megan Louws, nine points, four rebounds.
TIGERS TRAIL SERIES
The Welland Telus Tigers fell 3-2 in overtime to Stoney Creek in the opening game of a series to decide who advances to the OMHA major peewee A quarter-finals.
Quinten Hemauer and Tyler Rowland scored for Welland in the game.
Welland compiled a 3-1 record during the round-robin portion of the playdowns, defeating Grimsby, Garden City and Glanbrook before losing to the Stoney Creek Warriors.
Nicolas DiPietro scored twice and Easton McComber, Carter Kipp and Carter Risto added single tallies as Welland opened play with a 5-0 win over the Grimsby Kings. Bryson Farr was in net for his seventh shutout of the season.
The Tigers then set down the Garden City Falcons 5-2 on goals from Risto, Hemauer, Rowland, DiPietro and Simon Guglielmi. Ty Kostyniuk and Nicolas Roberge scored for the Falcons.
Kaleb Seguin, Hemauer and DiPietro would pace the Tigers past Glanbrook 3-1 with Lucas Ecker countering for the Rangers.
Guglielmi and Kipp scored for Welland as they came up just short in a 3-2 loss to Stoney Creek. Matthew Millar scored twice and Zachary Startek once for the Warriors in the final round-robin game.
Welland would prevail 3-2 over Grimsby in Sunday’s semi-final with Rowland netting two and DiPietro one. Kieran McKenna scored both goals for Grimsby.
TIGER ATOMS TAKE LEAD
With a spot in the OMHA quarter-finals on the line, the Welland Niagara Street Pharmacy/Gene’s Skate Sharpening Tigers major atom A hockey team, opened the final series with a 4-1 victory over Stoney Creek
Scoring for Welland were Colby Franchetti, Townes Bestward, Tanner Cutler and Matteo Mete.
To get to the final series, Welland defeated Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Glanbrook and Stoney Creek in the round-robin and then Glanbrook in the semifinals.
Bestward and Cutler scored in a 2-1 win over Niagara Falls with Jaxson Hess replying for Niagara Falls.
Julian Belcastro, Cutler, Franchetti, Mete and Bestward netted goals in a 5-2 victory over St. Catharines.
Carter Kelly, Belcastro and Cutler scored for Welland in a 3-1 victory over Glanbrook.
Riley Caron notched his ninth shutout of the season in a 2-0 victory over Stoney Creek. Belcastro netted the game-winning goal from Franchetti and Ashlyn Armstrong and Brennen Hagar blocked a shot and sealed the win with an empty-net goal.
In a 5-1 victory over Glanbrook in the semifinals, Belcastro and Cutler each scored twice each with Franchetti adding a single goal.
Welland is now 42-4-8 overall, is undefeated in 22 straight league games and has shut out teams 12 times this season.
