Gary Jacob after being hauled down on a breakaway scored at the 13:30 mark of overtime, putting a backhand over the Orangemen’s netminder Manny Correia for a 4-3 victory as one of ball hockey’s biggest prize’s, an invitation to the National Championships was won by the Hawks.

Jacob’s goal capped off a magical day for the Hawks as just a few hours earlier they battled back to a 4-3 shoot-out win over the Vaughan Jets in the semi final.  Team Captain, Gurjeet Gill said, “it is unbelievable. The team has gone through so much together. There was a lot of pressure on the guys. We just came through.''  This seems to be a right of passage for the Hawks who have won this tournament three times in the last four years

For the Orangemen, there isn’t comfort in losing in a championship final, but for this group of young men who average 20 years of age there will be many more opportunities and there may not be much comfort in that, but how many teams would have wanted to be in their situation that afternoon with one chance at the Nationals.  This was quite an accomplishment for the Orangemen who just last year won the Eastern B Regional Championship and are sure to be back for their opportunity in the spot light.

The Hawks now join the Brampton Express and Toronto Thunder as the three teams who will attempt to bring back our version of the holy grail which has been in La Belle Province of Quebec for the past eight years.  The National Championships are being hosted the week of August 10-16 in Winnipeg, Manitoba and we wish all the Ontario team the best of luck.

Division Preliminary Round Results

Division Gm 1 Gm 2 Gm 3 PCT PTS A1.  VAUGHAN JETS 6-1 3-4 3-5 .545 2 A2.  METRO ORANGEMEN 3-2 2-1 5-3 .625 6 A3.  MISSISSAUGA HAWKS 2-3 4-3 2-0 .571 4 A4.  BEETON XTREME 1-6 1-2 0-2 .167 0

Semi-Finals

2nd – MISSISSAUGA HAWKS (shoot out) 4 3rd – VAUGHAN JETS 3

Championship Final

MISSISSAUGA HAWKS (overtime) 4  METRO ORANGEMEN 3

Final Standings

Team W L T GF GA PCT PTS  1. MISSISSAUGA HAWKS 4 1 0 16 12 .571 8  2. METRO ORANGEMEN 3 1 0 14 9 .625 6  3. VAUGHAN JETS 1 3 0 15 14 .545 2  4. BEETON XTREME 0 3 0 2 10 .167 0

Percentages and points shown are for preliminary round games only

Tournament Allstars Goalie RALPH PELLICORI MISSISSAUGA HAWKS Defence CHRIS CREADOR METRO ORANGEMEN Defence CHRIS CERQUEIRA METRO ORANGEMEN Forward RAJWINDER SANDHU MISSISSAUGA HAWKS Forward GARY COSTA MERO ORANGEMEN Forward STEVE CARDOSO MISSISSAUGA HAWKS