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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, May 26, 2016 | 38 HALTON TRANSMISSION 559 SPEERS RD., #UNIT 3 905-842-0725 www.haltontransmission.com Kevin Nagel Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports "Connected to your Community" Shootout win over Ridge gives Holy Trinity Sr. boys Halton Tier 1 soccer title Win vs. More today sends Titans to OFSAA tourney By Herb Garbutt Beaver sports staff Hinchcliffe pole sitter for 100th Indy 500 By Herb Garbutt Beaver sports staff The longer the game dragged on, the better the Holy Trinity Titans felt about their chances. Since the end of the regular season, the Titans had shown a flair for the dramatic. Whether it was Caleb Minchin's overtime goal in a 2-1 quarter-final victory over Assumption or a late two-goal rally that saw them edge the previous unbeaten Loyola Hawks 2-1 in the semifinal. Facing another undefeated team in the Halton final, neither the Titans nor the Iroquois Ridge Trailblazers could find the mark in regulation. Two 10-minute overtimes also didn't produce a goal although Iroquois Ridge nearly ended the game in the final minute. A long arching strike sailed over the head of Tomas Tabak, but the Titans keeper leaped and reached back to deflect it over the bar. It was the best scoring chance of a game that produced many of them. "We couldn't concede with one minute left," Tabak said. "I wouldn't have been able to sleep." Not surprisingly, when the game went to penalty kicks, it came down to the final shooters tied 2-2. As Trinity's Nicolas Popov ap- proached the ball, he did a stutter step before unleashing a kick that hit the right post, and deflected across the net and found mesh just inside the left post. "I knew I was going to do the stutter step, but I didn't mean to hit the post," Popov said. "At first I thought it was going to go right across but then I saw the spin on the ball and I knew it was going to go in." That left the game in the hands of Tabak, who had already stopped two of the four Ridge attempts. Tabak became a keeper for a very practical reason. "I wasn't good enough to play out," he said with a laugh. But Tabak was a difference maker in net. Staring down the final Ridge shooter, he dove to his left to block the kick giving Holy Trinity its first senior boys' soccer title in four years. "It's crazy, really," Titans' coach Andrew Saulez said. "You're hoping for one (save), maybe two. You get three and almost a fourth. That's incredible." "I guessed right a couple of times," Tabak said. "I feel bad for the other goalie. It's been a tough road. We finished third in our division so to come out on top, it's such a relief." Holy Trinity's Caleb Minchin (12) heads the ball past Alex Golubovic (15) of Iroquois Ridge during Thursday's Halton Tier 1 senior boys' soccer final. Holy Trinity won on penalty kicks and will play Hamilton's St. Thomas More in today's (Thursday's) GHAC final. | photo by Nikki Wesley ­ Burlington Post (follow on Twitter @halton_photog) The Titans went 4-2-1 during the regular season, finishing behind Loyola (5-0-2) and Iroquois Ridge (4-0-3) in the Richardson Division. Holy Trinity trailed Loyola 1-0 in the semifinals but got goals from Bryan Lourenco with eight minutes to play and Minchin with two minutes remaining. "When it came down to the wire, we showed we can keep fighting and come back to win," Minchin said. "That Loyola win defined our whole team," Tabak said. "It showed no matter how you're doing, you can come up with a big win." Holy Trinity will face St. Thomas More in the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference final today (Thursday) at 2:30 p.m. in Hamilton with the winner advancing to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AAA tournament in Kingston June 2-4. One thing Saulez knows is his team will play hard until the final whistle. "They work extremely hard. They work for each other," he said. "The biggest thing is they never quit." No driver has had to answer more questions about the Indy 500 in the last year than James Hinchcliffe. Last Sunday, the Oakville IndyCar driver answered them all emphatically at 230 mph. Hinchcliffe left no doubt about his ability to race at the track that nearly claimed his life last year as he claimed the pole position for Sunday's 100th running of the Indy 500. The final driver on the track, Hinchcliffe averaged 230.760 mph over four laps to edge Josef Newgarden for his first IndyCar pole position. "I came into this month hoping we'd have a new story to talk about after what happened last year and I think we did it," Hinchcliffe said. "I can't believe it. I'm honestly at a loss for words, which everyone knows is rare for me." Hinchcliffe was 24th in qualifying for last year's race. The following day in practice he was going into Turn 3 when the suspension on his car broke. His car slammed into the wall at 220 mph and a piece of the suspension broke through the car and pierced his thigh, severing an artery. He was rushed to hospital, receiving 14 pints of blood on the way. Emergency surgery stopped the bleeding but Hinchcliffe faced a long recovery, missing the rest of the season. He returned this season after some bad luck, including a flat tire, in his see Hinchcliffe on p. 39 OAKVILLE SOCCER CLUB Week One Photo Contest Winner: Photographer: Sharon Simas Age Division: BU4 Tim Hortons Oakville Beaver A Proud Sponsor of Oakville Soccer Club Sponsored by: