Giants forward Jessie Hyland protects the ball from a BCI player during the opening game of the senior girls soccer team's season last week. The Giants won the game by a score of 5-1. Photo by Amanda Smith
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Giants forward Jessie Hyland protects the ball from a BCI player during the opening game of the senior girls soccer team's season last week. The Giants won the game by a score of 5-1. Photo by Amanda Smith |
Chelsea Deschamps, Garret Richards lead impressive showing by South Grenville
BROCKVILLE - The South Grenville District High School (SGDHS) track team brought home four gold medals from the first meet of the outdoor season.
Chelsea Deschamps and Garret Richards won two gold medals apiece at the 33rd annual Kinsmen-Hungerford meet held at the Procter & Gamble complex at TISS in Brockville on Saturday.
Deschamps won the 100-m and 200-m dashes in the junior girls division with times of 12.93 and 25.38 seconds respectively. She just missed out on being named female athlete of the meet, according to SGDHS coach Norie Spence. "Chelsea's victories are well-deserved after a winter and spring of indoor training," Spence stated.
Those winning times were the best at the Kinsmen-Hungerford meet since 2000, the coach added.
Richards' two wins in the midget boys category also came in the 100-m and 200-m dashes. His gold medal times were 11.85 and 24.23 seconds respectively.
Spence noted Garret's victory in the 200-m was stunning; he picked off runners one by one down the stretch.
Deschamps' two first place finishes gave the South Grenville junior girls team 20 points, which put the Giants fifth. (Twenty-six schools scored points in that division.) The two wins by Richards also gave the Giants 20 points. South Grenville ended the day tied for third in the midget boys division. (Twenty-one teams scored points.)
"To put these performances in perspective, the Giants have not had one - let alone four - gold medals on the track in this meet since U.S. scholarship earner Mandy Wallace last won two in 2003," stated Spence.
Sprinter Matt Mason placed fifth in the junior boys 100-m dash final with a time of 11.88, a personal best.
In his first time racing against the "speedy guys," Matt "the Machine" Hunt cracked the 15-second mark (14.99) in the senior boys 100-m dash. New to the track team, Ryan Graham earned a personal best (59.21) in the senior boys 400-m dash. Mark Wynands, an assistant coach, had a solid performance in the 1,500-m run (4:48:42).
Thirteen members of the South Grenville track team will travel to Belleville on Friday for the Bay of Quinte meet. Abi Bush will defend her 100-metre record she set last year.
By Amanda Smith, Special to the Journal
PRESCOTT- The senior girls soccer team from South Grenville started off its season with two wins at home on Thursday, May 1.
The Giants played their first game of the season against a strong team from Brockville Collegiate Institute (BCI).
The girls were on the defensive for the majority of the first half, unable to run the ball or get chances on the Red Rams goalie.
The Giants were down 1-0 at the end of the first half on a goal that was too high for keeper Megan Colwell to reach.
The Giants then came back in the second half to dominate and secure their first win of the season with a score of 5-1.
Alanna Lasenba had three goals for South Grenville, and Jessie Hyland added the other two goals.
The Giants played their second game of the day against Gananoque Secondary School.
The Giants started their second game off strong with two goals in the first half from Lasenba.
The girls continued their dominating game over the Trojans; they were getting lots of chances but were unable to score another goal.
The Giants hung on to win the game 2-0.
Senior girls coach Tim Waring was impressed with the way the girls played their first couple of games.
"There was outstanding play by all the girls today especially since we are playing short," he said, "The girls are playing smart."
"We had no subs today which makes it tough to play games, but the girls never quit even when they were tired."
Waring added there are many new girls to the team this year, and there are still a few things to work on during the season.
"I want to work on the fundamentals," the coach said, "but there are some things that can only be taught through experience such as learning to create openings and awareness of the field."
The Giants played at home against Thousand Islands Secondary School and Athens District High School yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) after the Journal went to press.
Senior boys soccer team wins twice opening day
By Amanda Smith, Special to the Journal
PRESCOTT- The South Grenville senior boys soccer team opened their season with a pair of wins on Thursday, May 1.
The boys played their first game of the season at the Kriska RCA fields against the visiting team from Brockville Collegiate Institute (BCI).
South Grenville was down 1-0 at the end of the first half but was not behind for long. Only a few minutes into the second half, Kyle Lavery scored the first goal of the Giants season.
Throughout the remainder of the game, the boys continued to pressure the defense of BCI, and ended up winning the game by a score of 4-1. Lavery scored three times with Jacob Hayes adding a goal as well.
In the boys second game of the day, the Giants pulled off another win against the Gananoque Trojans.
The Giants got off to another slow start falling behind early in the first half, as they continued to give the Trojans team lots of chances on the Giants net.
The boys started the second half down 1-0, but quickly came back to even up the score at one apiece.
The Giants started pressuring the Trojans even more after scoring their first goal.
The Giants won the game with a score of 3-1.
Scoring for the Giants were Lavery, who scored two goals against the Trojans, and Kristian Knapp with one goal.
Senior boys coach Scott Baird was happy with the wins the boys pulled off.
"Everyone played well as a unit," Baird said. "We are getting better at forcing the other team to come at us."
Baird stated there are still some things to work on.
"We start our games off slow but quickly finish. We play better under pressure, which is not a comfort, especially against stronger teams that we may come upon further into the season."
"We will make adjustments as needed during future games, but otherwise we'll play our own game," the coach added.
The boys played at home against Thousand Islands Secondary School and Athens District High School yesterday (Tuesday).