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BRAMPTON, ON – August 31, 2009 - The inaugural Youth World Outdoor Ball Hockey Championships took place at the Brampton Ball Hockey Club this past weekend with teams competing for the coveted Champions’ jackets and many other great awards! Teams competed in three divisions … Youth Under 12 (U12); Youth Under 15 (U15); and Youth Under 18 (U18). The youth tournament weekend was the first of three event weekends over the next six weeks as part of the “ballhockey.com” 14th Annual World Outdoor Ball Hockey Championships.
This is a special year as the “Worlds” have been expanded over three themed weekends … Youth – August 28-30 at the Brampton Ball Hockey Club; Women’s & Co-ed – September 25-27 at the Niagara Ball Hockey Club; and Men’s – October 2-4 at the Barrie Ball Hockey Club. We are anticipating well over 100 teams to participate this year (from all over North America) … which translates into more than 1500 participants competing for more than $30,000 in prizes.
The action got under way on Friday, August 28th as four Under 15 teams and four Under 18 teams took to the rink to kick things off. Saturday, August 29th saw an additional 14 games go in the books and the Under 12 teams joined the party! Sunday, August 30th saw some very exciting and close games as champions were crowned for the first time late in the afternoon.
St. Catharines Explosion Capture Youth Under 18 Championships!
The St. Catharines Explosion needed overtime to defeat the Barrie Team Brute squad in the exciting Under 18 Final game as they took home the 3-2 victory. Charlie Sheehan was the big hero for the Explosion as he ripped a shot into the net just 43 seconds into overtime, on a nice feed from John Turner! The teams played a scoreless first period and Explosion starter Jesse Neufeld was pulled from his net due to illness early in the second, handing a 1-0 lead over to Katie Wainio. Team Brute wasn’t very welcoming and they put their first shot behind Wainio on a quick release from Tyler Yerex to tie the game at 1 each. The Barrie team went ahead at the 6:42 mark of the third period as Yerex scored his second of the contest. The Explosion team rallied to score with the extra attacker on the rink to pull even with just 13 seconds left in regulation on a Jesse Gibson goal. Anthony Setacci scored for St. Catharines early in the second for a brief 1-0 lead. The Explosion team went undefeated through the tournament and was victorious against Team Brute by a score of 5-3 in their first game. The Explosion team posted a 7-1 win over the Hamilton Spitfires and a 10-0 shelling of the Brampton Ball Hogs, before meeting up with Team Brute for a re-match in the Championship Final.
2009 Champions – St. Catharines Explosion
Jon Leclerc, Jesse Neufeld, Jessie Gaudreau, Luke Dopplehofer, Rob Conn, Charlie Sheehan, Dylan Riddle, Katie Wainio, John Turner, Craig Rupp, Jacob Dopplehofer, Keeryn Horton, Anthony Setacci, Jesse Gibson.
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