By Jeff Gard/Today’s Northumberland
The St. Mary Thunder girls rugby team saved its best performance for last against Holy Cross from Peterborough and in the most important game of the season.
It didn’t result in a victory, but the Thunder were rewarded with a satisfying silver medal following a 15-12 loss in the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) girls A/AA rugby championship game in Cobourg on Wednesday afternoon.
“We all really wanted to win and we were all willing to fight hard to make it happen. We came up short, but it was really close and I couldn’t be more proud of my team,” said Grace Jenkins, the Thunder’s player of the game.
Wednesday’s final was a battle between the top two seeds in the 12-team tournament: Holy Cross, the Central Ontario Secondary School Athletics champion, at No. 1 and St. Mary, the host entry but also from COSSA, at No. 2, showcasing just how strong this region is for rugby.
Holy Cross had two victories of 55-0 and a semifinal win of 34-0 heading into the gold-medal match-up while St. Mary had a pair of big wins in preliminary play as well, 48-0 and 54-0, but battled hard to a 5-0 semifinal victory on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Holy Cross opened the scoring with an unconverted try near the seven-minute mark of the contest. The Peterborough club likely didn’t trail much, if at all this season, but St. Mary took a 7-5 lead in the second half with 15 minutes to play as Leila Briscoe scored a try that was converted by Grace Seto.
A try plus conversion with just under eight minutes remaining put Holy Cross in front 12-7 and late in the contest they picked up what turned out to be three crucial points off a penalty kick.
St. Mary’s Gloria Nott scored in the final minute of play and the Thunder declined to attempt the conversion as the potential two points wouldn’t have been enough anyway. They made one final push before time expired.
“We definitely made them work for that win,” Jenkins said. “We can’t discredit what they did. Their effort was incredible and then we just brought it back harder. At the end of the day they came up with the gold, but we’re happy with the silver. We’ll take it.”
St. Mary coach Shawn Carmichael couldn’t be more proud of his players. It wasn’t the same time that back in the fall was on the wrong end of lopsided results against Holy Cross.
“They brought it. It was two tries each and a couple calls go this way, that way and you get that outcome,” Carmichael said. “I’ve been preaching to them that the effort takes care of the W’s. If you play each minute and fill those minutes with meaningful seconds then the outcome just takes care of itself. That’s a fantastic outcome.
“We proved that we can play with them today. They were clearly the better team in the fall and now I think we can match them. I look forward to next season.”
Jenkins also sees a bright future for girls rugby at St. Mary, now that high school sports have returned. The senior team had a number of Grade 11 players and the OFSAA squad called up some junior players as well. They couldn’t be more pleased with their OFSAA showing.
“I think we’re really excited. It’s definitely going to show what Thunder rugby is going to bring in the future,” Jenkins said. “There’s lots of talent coming from the juniors and I think we really brought it today. It was a close game and both teams fought hard.”
St. Mary’s OFSAA roster includes: Ava Hughes, Maddie McLean, Brianna Bolton, Grace Rice, Bethany Hayward, Sydney Pipe, Grace Seto, Elizabeth Seto, Grace Jenkins, Kiera Martin, Brooklyn Sleep, Sydney Souch, Gloria Nott, Katrina McColl, Sinead O’Riordan, Adia Shaw, Diya Patel, Kaycee Craig, Lachlan McClellan, Meghan Meade, Veronika Mokros, Tatum Ireland, Presley Barton, Leila Briscoe, Mikaela Steward, Maggie Lycett, Ryleigh Woods, Emma Khaimovich, Bella Angelo,Emma Rypstra and Tristan van den Heuvel.
