The Similkameen News Leader
Sports Page
PSS REBELS EARN SPOT AT VALLEYS
Princeton Secondary School's Senior Boys Basketball team came second at the recent Ashcroft Tournament February 3rd and 4th despite being able to dress only six players.
The Rebels suffered their only loss in the first game against Fraser Lake, the eventual tournament winners.
Early in their first game Saturday Louis Smith, who was hoping to celebrate his eighteenth birthday with a win over Ashcroft, left the game with a scalp injury that required stitches.
Both the Ashcroft and Princeton players viewed the game as a must win. In their previous two meetings each had won and lost. With the loss of Smith for the remainder of the game things didn't look good for Princeton.
The five remaining players, Blake Tarswell, Kevin Alvarenga, Michael Bedard, Dennis Ogrinc and Brian Shewchuck dug down deep and managed with outstanding teamwork to win the game.
Smith returned for the final game of the tournament and the local boys were able to overcome Enderby, a team that they had previously lost to earlier in the season.
Blake Tarswell and Kevin Alvarenga won the two-ball competition. In addition, Tarswell along with Louis Smith were honoured by being selected for the Tournament All-Star Team.
The boys, and their coach Morgan Desabrais returned late Saturday night tired but elated.
Wednesday, February 8th, the Rebels hosted Heritage Christian School of Kelowna at the PSS Gym. The game was also a must win as a loss would have brought an end to Princeton's basketball season.
The game went back and forth and Princeton finished the match with a 79 to 72 final earning a spot at the Valley Championships. The Valleys will take place February 17th and 18th in Kamloops.
Congratulations, Rebels!
POSSE WINS IMPORTANT ONE, LOSES ONE
The Posse went into Friday night's game against Summerland with a 'must win' attitude, and that's exactly what they did.
Only 1:51 into the game, David Wyman passed the puck in front of the Summerland goal and Brad Davis sent it through the goalies legs. Sean Carr also received an assist on the play.
By 2:36, Summerland had a two-man advantage but couldn't produce. Both teams played a fast period with Summerland earning most of the penalties.
It wasn't until 1:18 was left in the frame when the Sting managed to sneak one past Princeton's Brad Fraser to tie the game at one all.
The second period saw more aggressive play from both sides and Summerland got a go ahead goal at 9:43. Princeton replied at 11:44 with a goal from Chad Hohmann (assisted by Jerrett Pretty Young Man and Seth Armitage).
Summerland fired in another at 12:19 but Princeton responded with 1:47 left in the period and tied the game at 3 when Cody Devitt picked one off the rebound. Assists went to Jordan Kerr and Brad Davis.
The third period saw some more pushing and shoving, but Princeton was obviously hungry for a win and got a go ahead goal at 9:38 when Micah Anderson fired a shot into the top of the goal off the rebound. The power play goal was just the beginning as Princeton's Cody Devitt added another power play goal at 15:14 (assisted by David Wyman and Brad Davis).
The Posse sealed the deal with 1:42 left in the game when Brad Davis took a pass on the boards from Conner McGarry and sailed one into the empty net while in front of Summerland's bench. David Wyman earned an assist.
Final score: Princeton 6, Summerland 3. Shots on goal: Summerland 41, Princeton 25.
The Saturday night game against Sicamous Eagles was a completely different matter.
Sicamous opened the scoring at 3:42 and finished the first period leading by two following another goal at 14:31.
The second period saw Princeton make it onto the scoreboard when Chad Hohmann went in alone and beat the goalie with a backhander on the glove side at 6:08. Assists went to Jeremy Wagner and Seth Armitage.
Then it got strange. At 7:18 David Wyman slid into the Eagles goalie at the end of a play and referee Yanick Harrison gave him two-minutes for goalie interference and a 10-minute misconduct. Harrison failed to see the Sicamous player who started beating on Wyman while he was down. This prompted the crowd to react, mostly with boo's and Posse Coach Dale 'Duner' Hladun tossed a water bottle on the ice. He earned a game misconduct for that and before long fans started tossing debris onto the ice.
It was the start of a period that ended up with a total of 50-minutes in penalties and a lot of vocal criticism from the crowd. It seemed as if Princeton played most of the period short handed.
The crowd did cheer when referee Harrison tripped and fell to the ice at 17:26. Princeton did an excellent job of killing penalties, but Sicamous managed to score another goal at 17:44.
The third period was a little calmer until 12:34 when Cody Devitt collected a total of 29-minutes in penalties which started with a call for cross checking and wrapped up with two game misconducts. Devitt argued his point at the open exit from the ice to the Posse dressing room but the linesman he was discussing it with wasn't interested.
At one point Princeton goalie Brad Fraser had heard enough from his team mate and skated over and pushed him off the ice. The crowd approved of the action.
Sicamous scored again at 13:29 and two more fights broke out in the final minute of play.
Final score: Sicamous 4, Princeton 1. Shots on goal: Sicamous 36, Princeton 19. PIM: Sicamous 15 for 52-minutes, Princeton 28 for 121-minutes.
