2017 National Championships: Day 1

The 2017 Nationals kicked off at Tamanawis Fields in Surrey, British Columbia today with the U15 Boys and Girls opening up the tournament to start inter-pool play. All U15 teams played at least one game today (if not more), so each provincial team had the opportunity to get some turf time in and feel their opponents out.

This years Nationals is situated at the world class facility of Tamanawis Fields, which features two pitches, which meant simultaneous games on each field made for a day packed with hockey and sun!

Ontario Central and Alberta of the Boys U15 tournament opened up play in the 8:30AM slot. Randhawa Randeep of Ontario Central splashed the scored board early in the game at the 8 minute mark, and went on score a total of four goals throughout the game, making a mighty push for Ontario to take the win 7-2.

The B.C. White Lions and Alberta Girls U15 teams were up next and delivered a tightly matched game. Ella Blanke of Alberta opening up scoring early in the first, to which the Lions answered with a goal of their own ten minutes later. The Lions broke through the 1-1 stalemate in the second half, only to have Alberta tie it up again before the end of game, which saw the outcome of a 2-2 tie.

In another closely matched game, the U15 Boys Quebec team took on the B.C. Rams in a relatively clean match with only one green card handed out late in the second, that closed tightly at 1-1.

The tight games continued as the U15 Girls Ontario East and B.C. Stags faced off. The match was incredibly back-and-fourth as both teams were looking to create offensive chances. Ontario East took two green cards and a yellow in the second half, but the B.C. Stags were unable to capitalize and the game ended scoreless 0-0.

The fifth game of the day saw the U15 Boys Ontario East team take on the B.C. Lions in an exciting match that saw the young Lions team take the early lead four minutes in by a goal from Gill Harshdeep. Ontario East answered with both Singh Rajan and Brendan Goddard hitting the back of the net two times each for their team, leading the East ultimately to a 5-1 win.

Game six featured a British Columbia face off – the U15 Girls B.C. Rams and the B.C. Royal Lions battled each other for the first time in the competition. The first half was tightly matched with only a single goal scored by B.C. Rams captain Jenna Buglioni. After half time, the Rams continued their push and Buglioni went on to scored a second goal before handing it off to her teammates who banked an addition three back-to-back goals for the Rams in the 45th, 47th, and 49th minute of play leaving the scoreboard 5-0 for the B.C. Rams.

Heading into the afternoon, the U15 Girls Ontario West and Quebec squared off in a tight game that saw Ontario take the 2-0 win with Elly Peters and Ava Murphy lighting up the scoreboard.

Continuing what seemed to be the theme of the day, Ontario Central and Alberta U15 Girls faced off in what was another tightly matched game with tons of  back and forth play. The first half was a stalemate in their war of attrition with no goals to speak for. Coming out of halftime Ontario Central captain Harnoor Malhi ensured an early lead in the second, but with 5 minutes to go, Alberta tied it up with a goal from Jasdeep Sivia to leave the final score sitting at 1-1.

In their second games of the day, the U15 Girls Ontario East challenged the BC White Lions. The Lions took an early lead with a goal from team captain Kaiden Stanley in the fifth minute. Taylor Katsube added to the lead to make it 2-0 late in the second half. Ontario East responded with ten minutes to go as Sanika Rewankar hit the back of the net, but amidst a series of yellow cards from Ontario East ultimately saw B.C. take the win when the final whistle was blown, 2-1.

When the U15 Boys Alberta and Quebec teams faced off late in the afternoon, the keynote was come out early, and strong. Quebec pushed right off the first whistle for 3 early goals in the first half from Nicolas Syrros, Noah Bennett and Callan McCulloch which were left unanswered, with the final score 3-0 for Quebec.

In one of the last games of the evening the U15 Ontario Boys team squared off against Ontario Central in a battle for bragging rights for back home. Ontario Central splashed the scoreboard early in the first with a goal from Luka Mahrt-Smith. The East responded with goals from Ravi Bhindi and Navdeep Baring to leave it sitting at 2-1. But Central had time to answer before heading into half time with a goal from Randeep Randhawa which tied the game at two. Central came back into the second half carrying some momentum and scored early with a goal from Julius D’Souza leaving the final scoreboard sitting at 3-2 for Ontario Central.

The last game of the evening was a high scoring inter-provincial rivalry that saw the U15 Boys B.C Rams take a win over the B.C. Lions, 8-1 with Gaurav Agnihotari settling into his groove, scoring a hat trick.