A goal by Aaron Prevost with 25 seconds remaining gave Ontario Blacks a 10-9 victory over Ontario Whites to claim their first ever Gold Medal in the Men’s Division at the Canadian Junior Goalball Championships in the. Donnovan Linton capped an incredible comeback by the Ontario Whites, when he scored with 33 seconds left to tie the score at 9-9. They had trailed 9-5 with only 8 minutes to play. Aaron Prevost and Kevin Rawlings each scored 4 goals and Justin Lowrey added 2 to lead the Ontario Blacks. Dylan Johnson led the Ontario Whites with 6 goals, while Arvin Carandang and Donnovan Linton each scored once.
Ontario Blacks cruised through the round robin undefeated with scores of 15-5 over B.C., 10-0 over Ontario Whites, 9-6 over V.I.P. from Pittsburgh, and 4-2 over New Brunswick. Ontario Whites tied V.I.P. 11-11 in their opening game. In other games they were defeated 10-0 by Ontario Blacks, and 9-6 by New Brunswick, before beating B.C. 8-6 to finish in 3rd place after the round robin. In semi-final action Ontario Blacks defeated B.C. 12-3, while Ontario Whites defeated New Brunswick in impressive fashion 13-5 to set up an all Ontario Final. Preceding the Gold Medal game, British Columbia defeated New Brunswick 15-5 to claim the Bronze medal. The following players represented Ontario in the Mens division at these championships. Ontario Blacks and Gold Medal champions were Justin Lowrey, Kevin Rawlings, Aaron Prevost and Tony Fraser. Representing the Silver Medalists from Ontario Whites were Dylan Johnson, Arvin Carandang, Donnovan Linton and Eric Miller.
In the Women’s Division Ontario defeated New Brunswick 10-0 to claim the Bronze medal. It was a bittersweet victory for the Ontario Trilliums as earlier in the day they lost a semi-final game in Extra Throws to Alberta.
In a tightly contested double round robin Ontario won games over Alberta by scores of 6-1, and 2-0, and New Brunswick twice by scores of 10-0. They did however lose to B.C. 4-2 to begin the tournament and later tied them 1-1 to finish in second place heading to the playoffs. In the semi-final game Ontario Trilliums trailed Alberta 3-0 late into the game before mounting an incredible comeback lead by Jillian MacSween who scored twice in the last 4 minutes and Sarah Hargraves who tied the game with 11 seconds remaining. Neither team scored in overtime. Alberta scored on two extra throws to win one of the best games ever played in the Womens Division of the Championships. Members of the Trilliums included Jillian MacSween, Sarah Hargraves, Jessica Kuory, Julia Figueiredo, and Brooke Perriam.
All tournament team players were as follows.
Womens Division; Jillian MacSween, Ontario. Rima Koddoura, Alberta, and Sophie Audte, B.C.
Mens Division: Justin Lowrey, Ontario. John Tee, B.C. Ryan Calahan, V.I.P. Pittsburgh.
Special thanks goes to the following organizers. Bob Mannen, Tracie MacPhee, Sue Blackford, Debbie Jansen, and Mick Ferras who Coordinated these championships.
We will see you all next year.
Mike Breuls
