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32 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday May 2, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com Buzz opens Jr. B lacrosse campaign with tie Dawson, Hristopoulos shines with nine-point effort Members of last year's national champion Oakville Buzz squad were treated to a glimpse of the club's future Friday night. Harry Hristopoulos scored five goals and added four assists as the newlook Buzz opened the 2007 junior B lacrosse season with a 13-13 tie against the Mississauga Tomahawks. Josh Ruys and Josh Barrick contributed hat-trick efforts for the Buzz, which does not feature a single returnee from last year's Founder's Cup-winning roster. Players from the 2006 squad were on hand for Friday's season-opener to watch the national championship banner go up behind the Oakville bench in a pre-game ceremony. Buzz head coach Stu Brown, already familiar with Hristopoulos' abilities after coaching him the past couple years in the Oakville Minor Lacrosse Association system, was particularly impressed with the toughness the youngster displayed Friday. Hristopoulos suffered a cut to his chin after being hit following his third goal, but completed the game before heading to the hospital for stitches. "I knew he was a good player and he has always been a goalscorer. He's already showing he can be one of the top players in this league," said Brown. "He showed his teammates he can take it as well. He's a smaller guy but he plays tough, gets a lot of loose balls, works hard in the corners and wins a lot of one-on-one battles." Playing in front of a large crowd at its new home, the Glen Abbey Recreation Centre, the Buzz carried the play to Mississauga early on but trailed 3-2 after the opening period. The teams were tied 7-7 after two periods and 12-12 at the end of regulation, as Hristopoulos scored the tying goal with 56 seconds to go in the third. The teams traded goals in the overtime session, with Barrick providing the equalizer with 4:55 remaining. Taylor Sykes and Dylan Gilbert added single markers for the Buzz, while Braden Gallant had four assists and Spencer Taugher contributed two helpers. Cam Watts and Harrison Hristopoulos, Harry's brother, split time in net for Oakville. "The boys were all pretty disappointed we didn't get the win but, from a standpoint of we've got to get points wherever we can, getting one point is better than not getting any," said Brown, who has happy with the overall defensive play of his young squad. "We need to be a little sharper -- part of that is nerves, part of it is lack of experience. If we're going to be competitive, we have to minimize mistakes and unforced turnovers." A busy week lies ahead for the Buzz as the team will travel to Halton Hills tomorrow, Akwesasne Saturday and Cornwall Sunday. Oakville's next home game is scheduled for May 12, an 8 p.m. start against Gloucester. Sting back in NLL final Oakville Minor Lacrosse Association product Dan Dawson has made it back to the National Lacrosse League's championship game. Dawson and the Arizona Sting earned a berth in the Champion's Cup with a 9-7 victory over the San Jose Stealth Saturday in Phoenix, capturing the Western Conference title. Dawson scored twice and added three assists for the Sting, which will make its second finals appearance in three years. Arizona dropped a 19-13 decision to the Toronto Rock in the 2005 final, a game in which Dawson played with a sprained shoulder. "It's been a long road. It started the first week of November and tonight we'll enjoy this win, but we've got to get back to the drawing board tomorrow," Dawson told the Arizona Sting's official website after Saturday's contest. "This is two years in the making to get back to where we were, and that's the Champion's Cup." More than a week before the final, the Sting has already caught a major break. Its finals opponents, the Rochester Knighthawks, were the NLL's top seed this season, but a scheduling conflict will prevent Rochester from hosting the championship game. Arizona will be the site of the NLL final instead, a game slated for May 12. The game will air live across the United States on the VERSUS network; game television plans for viewers in Canada will be announced at a later date. KAREN NEWMAN / SPECIAL TO THE OAKVILLE BEAVER CLOSE AND PERSONAL: Oakville Buzz player Kristian Johansen (left) and Mississauga's Dan Vertolli rough it up during Friday's junior B lacrosse contest at Glen Abbey Rec Centre. Brown said the team moved its home games to Glen Abbey this season because of geographical convenience for the players and the fans. The Buzz's home (known as `The Hive') for the first five years of the club's existence was Maplegrove Arena, located at the southeast end of town. -- Jon Kuiperij Aquinas girls armed for soccer repeat By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Most athletes finish their entire high school tenure never knowing what it's like to win a provincial championship. Taryn McKenna doesn't know what it's like to not win one. The St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders goalkeeper backstopped her team to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) senior girls' AA soccer title last season in her rookie campaign. While most of her teammates followed the usual path of playing at least one, if not two, years of junior soccer before joining the senior squad, McKenna jumped right into the starter's role as a Grade 9 student. As if that wasn't enough for a first-year high schooler to handle, the provincial final would be decided in a sudden-death shootout. McKenna stopped the last two shooters from St. Thomas, Ontario's St. Joseph's Lady Rams to set up Alana Wood's OFSAA-winning goal. "It was an awesome experience," said McKenna. "Everyone was so excited when the game ended. It was a great feeling but maybe because I was younger, I don't think I really understood how much it meant." Perhaps the magnitude of the victory -- the school's first OFSAA gold in any team sport -- didn't dawn on her because winning was nothing new to the Raiders' keeper. Just three months before OFSAA, McKenna and the Oakville Phantoms won the Ontario Indoor Cup U-15 title -- in a shootout, no less -- and, two months after OFSAA, she allowed only one goal in four games to lead the Phantoms to the Ontario Cup outdoor title. McKenna and the Raiders are now after something even more difficult than winning the OFSAA title -- successfully defending it. Since the AA title was established in 1994, only one team has won back-to-back championships. "We had a lot of Grade 11s last year so the team isn't too different," McKenna said. "We're pretty strong again this year." Dominant start to season Eleven players have returned from the championship team and, although they've lost strikers Andrea Adamic and Katherine Dziedzic, the Raiders are proving early in the early going of the Halton season that they have more than capable replacements. The Raiders are 2-0, having outscored their first two opponents 12-0. Brittany Russo scored three times in Tuesday's 80 victory over Kings Christian Collegiate, while Ashlee Michie and Angela Piccoli each had a pair of goals. Gillian Knap and Jamie Neefs also scored. The Raiders are also strong defensively and have the leg strength to move the ball quickly up the field. Knap's goal clearly demonstrated both of these traits as she intercepted a ball at midfield, dribbled around one defender and unleashed a shot from 40 yards out that found its way under the crossbar. The Raiders' biggest challenge may be keeping their game sharp in league play. Last year, divisions were aligned geographically, leaving Aquinas to compete against larger schools such as Holy Trinity and Oakville Trafalgar. The Raiders still managed to post a 3-1-1 record in league play. This year, divisions are aligned by school population. So, while their record may be more impressive at season's end, the Raiders will have to be ready for tougher rivals as they progress through the playoffs. "It's good to win but it would be better to have some tougher games," McKenna said. Considering the Raiders won last year's Halton AA final 6-0, they may not face a serious threat until they advance beyond league play. "We may not get the same level of challenge as we did when we were playing teams like Holy Trinity, but it will be up to us to work extremely hard," said Raiders' coach Justin Yantho. With OFSAA as the enticement, the Raiders won't be lacking motivation. "That's in their mind," Yantho said, "especially the girls from last year. They want to go back and they know they had to work really hard so, as easy as some games might be, OFSAA is a whole other story." A story the Raiders hope has the same ending. Locals to collide in OHL finals Oakville residents Zack Shepley and Justin Donati will cross paths again in the Ontario Hockey League's championship series, scheduled to begin Friday in Plymouth. Shepley and the Plymouth Whalers are coming off an impressive five-game victory over the London Knights in the Western Conference final. Shepley had an assist and a plus-4 rating in the five games. Two local products, Steve Mason and Sam Gagner, suited up for the Knights in the series. Mason's series highlight was a 50-save performance in Game 4, London's lone win of the series, while Gagner earned six points in five games. Donati, meanwhile, helped the Sudbury Wolves to a 4-2 series win over the Belleville Bulls in the Eastern Conference final. He scored twice in the Wolves' Game 4 victory as Sudbury rallied from a 2-1 series deficit. Donati's twin brother, Tyler, had five points in the series for the Bulls.