Glengarry Gaels senior football team defeats opponents

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ALEXANDRIA — There’s an acronym the Glengarry Gaels soccer players won’t say out loud, but their play Thursday shows it’s a goal they’re ready to reach.

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Both the Gaels boys and girls emerged victorious on the Glengarry District High School field against the Tagwi Warriors and Seaway Spartans during the second day of play in the SDG senior high school football season.

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It’s the first step toward a long-awaited berth in the SDG playoffs, which would ultimately—hopefully—lead to qualifying for that goal: medaling at the Ontario Federation of Athletics Federations championships.

Many of the players on the girls team that placed fourth at OFSAA last year are back, and head coach Kathleen Tonkin said her team is on the right track.

“We did a good job of passing the ball and releasing our players so we could use most of the court,” Tonkin said.

As the season progresses, she said she wants to get individual players to better defend — or mark — opposing players. Tonkin identified three key players for their success: Sarah Wilkes as head ball coach, Sadie Cameron as finalist forward and Rowan MacPherson in defence.

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Gaels scored — 5-0 over Seaway (Rachel Campbell and Wilkes, two each, single by Cameron); and 4-0 against Tagwi (hat trick by Teah Lacroix and single by Cameron).

After the Glengarry boys’ wins over Seaway and Tagwi, co-coach David Filion said the defense has some work to do to fully balance the offense.

“We had a lot of advantages offensively,” Filion said. “We moved the ball really well, but what needs to be improved is our overall defensive scoring.

“Hopefully it comes together at the end of the day because I really believe that to win a championship at the provincial level and even at the local level, you have to play really good defense.”

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In the middle and up front, Filion said he expects 12th-graders Ethan Wiltshire and Kale Cameron to be the main offensive cogs. Earlier, he said success would depend on everyone participating equally.

As an added bonus for a team that went undefeated in SDG regular league play last year, Jack Suter returns for his third senior year.

The Glengarry teams had a decided advantage during the preseason, which was marred by wet fields, as they entered the Tim Hortons Dome in Alexandria. Other rural schools such as Tagwi and Seaway do not have this alternative. Cornwall city teams can practice at the Benson Center field house. The Seaway and Tagwi teams were only allowed a few days ago on their respective school grounds.

Tagwi girls coach Lori McDonald’s expectations are relatively modest.

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“We should be fighting for the fourth playoff spot,” McDonald said.

After many years coaching juniors, she took over to continue coaching her daughter, Regan. McDonald says he will focus his training efforts on building team play and positioning before he can focus on individual skills.

She singled out forward Ziva Ware, fullback Nuala Wheeler and midfielder Danika Canham as core leaders.

Warriors boys coach Hiren Narsai is more optimistic as his team is already 3-1 with just a 3-0 loss to Glengarry.

“I’m really happy with how most of us used our size instead of losing the ball up the middle,” Narsai said. “We thought Glengarry were going to wash us but we held our own.”

He said his team, while short on numbers, has star Ottawa League player Tristan St. Denis, who scored four times in the 6-0 win over Seaway.

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“(The) main one, we have to work on our fitness level, doing little conditioning exercises. Right now, we’re losing momentum in the second half,” he said. “We’re not a deep team so we have to be fit enough to play the whole game.”

Seaway’s entry will be “varsity” teams with grade 9-10 players to fill out teams.

Boys coach Jeffrey Crooke said his team is without three starters, so working on team play will be stressed as the season progresses. He said he will look to Ethan Harper, Ethan Johnson and Logan Casselman to provide strength up the middle.

His female counterpart, Sue St. Marseille said keeping a positive and fun attitude is the main goal, and she noted the loud exultations of goalkeeper Abby Smail for keeping the team loose but motivated.

SDG high school football is underway — a junior varsity tournament was held at Char-Lan District High School in Williamstown on Friday. The senior and junior teams play one-day tournaments in Iroquois and Alexandria on Monday, Cornwall (St. Joseph Catholic Secondary School) and Avonmore on Tuesday and Cornwall (Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School) and North Dundas on Friday. The seniors also play a day in Cornwall (École secondaire catholique La Citadelle) on Thursday.

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