Sports | DrumhellerMail

St. A’s Sabres win zones, next stop provincials

Th e St. Anthony’s Sabres senior boys basketball team won their fi rst ever senior high school banner, winning zones,and they did it at home.

Th e team set the goal at the beginning of the year to be the South Central 1A Zone Champions, and win a berth into the provincial tournament. Th ey succeeded on Saturday night, defeating Olds Koinonia Christian School 71 - 55.

“It’s gratifying because the team has worked hard to develop not only the skills needed to win, but the mindset and

attitude to be champions on and off the court,” said coach Gavin Makse. “Th e team should be proud because it

was a total team eff ort.”

Th e road to the championship began Friday morning as the Sabres took on Our Lady of the Snows from Canmore. All players saw court time as the Sabres cruised to a 119-47 win. Anthony Merkel had an incredible 42 points in the effort,

point guard Matt Russell had a season high 20 and averaged 16 on the tournament. Brandon Gruber had 18.

Th is put them in the semi fi nal against the Duchess Eagles. Th e Sabres have handled the Eagles twice this year. Despite this, the Eagles came out gunning for a win. By half time, the Sabres were firmly in control leading 45-25. They held on for an 84-65 win. Th is time Gruber was the team’s top scorer with 19, Merkel had 17 and Russell quietly

dropped in 15.

Th is put them in the final against the Olds Koinonia Christian School Royals, the tournament number two seed, a provincial honourable mention, and a team the Sabres had not yet played this season. Th e Sabres jumped out in front, and were leading by 10 going into the half. Mitch Barry picked off a pass on the inbound play, and Alex Cliche nailed the shot at the buzzer, putting the Sabres up 35-23.

Olds continued to stay with the Sabres through the second half and had cut the lead to as close as fi ve points. Th e Sabres were leading by seven points in the fourth quarter when Gruber buried a three pointer from the top of the key as the shot clock wound down to zero, putting the Sabres back up by 10 points. They did not let the Royals back into the

game as the Sabres won 71-55.

Gruber led the way with 17 points and owned the boards, not allowing the Royals any second chance points. Russell

and Cliche each had 14. Th e Sabres are now on the hunt for a strong showing at the provincial tournament this Thursday to Saturday at St. Jerome’s School in Vermilion. Coming out of zones, the Sabres were seeded #7 in the 12 team tournament and it appears they will face the #10 home team St. Jerome’s in the first round on Th ursday at 1 p.m.

“We are looking forward to doing our zone proud at provincials,” said Makse. “Our goal is to take the tournament one game at a time, play with intensity on defense and continue to work as a team to achieve success."

U17 girls Drumheller Volleyball Club team plays season’s first tournament

The season for the Drumheller Volleyball Club (DVC) girls U-17 team is now underway.

Having started to practice as a group approximately three weeks ago, the girls played in their first tournament of the year this past weekend.

The tournament was hosted by the Queen’s Ultimate Volleyball Club of Red Deer, and played at the Innisfail Middle School.

Ten teams in total, from places such as Ponoka, Cold Lake, Athabasca, Cutknife (Saskatchewan), Calgary, Rocky Mountain House, and Lloydminster, provided competition.

In round robin play on Saturday, the DVC first met up with Calgary, defeating Calgary 25-4 and 25-9.

The second set was against Rocky Mountain House, who DVC defeated 25-20 and 5-12.

The third match was a tough one against the hosting Queen’s team. DVC fell short, losing 25-13 and 25-17.

The fourth match was against Lloydminster and was split. DVC lost the first set 25-23, but won the second set 25-21.

Advancing to quarter final play on Sunday morning, the girls were up against a persevering Cutknife team and lost both sets. Scores were close at 26-24 and 25-23, and the girls finished fifth overall.

All in all, the girls and coaches were pleased with their performance this weekend, and they provided much nail-biting entertainment for fans in the stands.

The team is looking forward to their next tournament Saturday, March 20th at Olds College.

CNRL Bantam Raptors win league championship, onto provincials

Drumheller CNRL Raptors won the CAHL League banner on Saturday, March 13 at home versus High River.

CNRL Raptors finished 4th overall in the standings. They went on to defeat Oyen in a best of three series sweeping them in two games. They then went on to play High River and did the same, swept them in two games.

Playoffs started in Oyen on February 21 with a win for the CNRL Raptors. They won 4-3 with a lead in the first period of 2-1. Spencer Fournier started the scoring off with assists by Landon Brown and Talon Marshall. Fournier’s second goal was unassisted.

The Raptors grew their lead in the second period to 3-1 as Fournier earned a hat trick assisted by Thomas Ahner and James Turnbull.

Oyen came back and tied it up in the third period at 3-3, but Drumheller came out ahead with a goal from Brown assisted by Brady Jacques with less than 2 minutes left.

They held on to win the game 4-3 which brought game two to Drumheller on February 27.

In game two, Oyen opened up the first period with two goals finishing the period with a 2-0 lead. The Raptors ended up being down by another goal in the second. The Raptors tried to turn it around and scored twice that period. The first goal was scored by Thomas Ahner, assisted by James Turnbull, and the second goal was scored by Fournier assisted by Zach Miller.

The scored was 3-2 for Oyen at the end of the second period. The third period was down to the wire until Talon Marshall tied the game with just over two minutes left on the clock. His goal was assisted by Thomas Ahner and Robert Sinclair.

With just 50 seconds left, Fournier scored the winner, assisted by Robert Sinclair. This advanced the Raptors to the next round versus High River.

Game one started in High River March 6 with a win for the Raptors in overtime. It was 2-1 for High River after first period with an unassisted goal from Tanner Hedstrom. The game was tied 2-2 at the end of the second period with a goal from Thomas Ahner, assisted by Marshall and Brown. In the third period, High River scored to lead with 3-2. Justin Schinnour tied the game, assisted by Lucas Martinez.

It was a battle till the end. Overtime came and Sinclair scored the winning goal with just under 4 minutes left in OT, Tanner Hedstrom had the assist.

Game two in this series was Saturday, March 13 at home for the Raptors. They wanted a win more than anyone else as they could win CAHL League on home ice.

Game 2 started off really strong for the Raptors with period 1 ending in 4-1. Drumheller’s first goal was scored by Hedstrom, assisted by Sinclair and Fournier. Their second was scored by Fournier, assisted by Ahner. The third was by Sinclair, assisted by Tanner Couturier and goal four was scored by Fournier assisted by Turnbull.

The Raptors let it slip in the second period, ending in a 4-4 tie. Both teams battled to get the winning goal, but once again Drumheller came out on top with only .16 seconds left on the clock. Fournier scored the 5th goal for the Raptors, and the team won the Bantam Tier 2 Championship for CAHL.

This has been an exciting year for this team. They were chosen to host the Investors Group Hockey Alberta 2010 Provincials on March 19-21. They were in play downs to see if they would be the Representative for Zone 6 or the Champions for Zone 6.

It turned out they won the play downs for Zone 6. This gave them the Championship Banner, which was won on home ice as well as defeating the Canmore Ice Cats.

The Investors Group Hockey Alberta 2010 Provincials start this Friday morning at 8 a.m. with the Raptors Hosting the Sexsmith Vipers.

The team invites hockey fans to come and check out some great hockey all weekend being played at the Drumheller Memorial Arena. Check The Drumheller Mail for more details on the games and times.

More information is available the Hockey Alberta website at www.hockeyalberta.ca click on Investors Group Hockey Alberta 2010 Provincials then on Bantam B.

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