Dilosa Sparks Lions Attack

Halifax Drops Amherst for Third Time in November
For the second time in 7 days the Halifax Lions easily dispatched of the Amherst Ramblers. The Lions have now beaten the Ramblers three times in November, outscoring them 14-3 in the process.
The Lions improve to a record of 7-10-2 while Amherst drops to 10-12-1.
Kyle Dilosa led the way for Halifax with 2 goals and 1 assist. The newly acquired Brendan Taylor has made an early impact on the offensive end for the Lions. The Oshawa, Ontario native and former Gatineau Olympique has 3 assists in 2 games and has found a connection with Dilosa. The two big forwards clicked on a line with Justin Belanger that accounted for 3 Lions’ goals.
Taylor has taken over control of the power play and created a lot of scoring opportunities for the Lions with the man advantage. The "pass first" centre seems to have lighted a spark under Dilosa who had his best game of the season.
It didn’t hurt that there were scouts from the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles and Saint John Seadogs in the crowd at the Forum. Dilosa played briefly with the Seadogs last season and is hopeful for a return to the QMJHL.
Wayne Bedecki scored on the powerplay for the Lions who are now 7-7-1 in their past 15 games. Stuart Lenehan added a shorthanded goal and Andrew Wigginton scored his seventh goal of the young season.
The game featured a flurry of goals in the second period as the teams went back and forth. The Ramblers narrowed Halifax’s lead to 3-2 with 2 minutes left in the second. That’s when Belanger and Taylor assisted on Dillosa’s second goal of the night to secure the victory for the Lions just before the end of the period.
The Lions next game is Sunday at the Forum vs. the Campbellton Tigers. The Tigers have the league’s worst record at 3-16-2. Game time is 3:30.

Uteck Bowl Recap

Dinos Win Uteck Bowl; Nill and Glavic Triumphant in Return to Huskies Stadium

This past Saturday, Blake Nill walked into Huskies Stadium for the 2009 Uteck Bowl with the swagger of a man walking into his own house. The former Huskies head coach was returning to face his old friend and former school in one of the most hyped football games in the city in recent memory.
As the sun set in the south end of Halifax and darkness began to loom over the Tower at Saint Mary’s, Nill reminded all the Huskies faithful and maritime football observers why he won 2 CIS championships as Head Coach at SMU just about a decade ago.
Nill’s new team, the Calgary Dinos, looked very much like the number 2 ranked team in the country, controlling both sides of the ball and leading from start to finish in a 38-14 drubbing of the Huskies.
Nill shocked the Halifax sports community when he announced he was leaving a Saint Mary’s program that he had turned into a national powerhouse to take over the Calgary Dinos. The Dinos situation was eerily similar to the one Nill has assumed at Saint Mary’s; a once proud program now down on its luck and eager to return to glory. Like clockwork, Nill took the struggling program and turned it into a winner almost overnight, just as he had done with the Huskies.
The Dinos have now won back to back conference championships and will play in their first Vanier Cup since 1995.
Matt Walker ran for 235 yards on 20 carries with 2 Touchdowns on route to garnering Uteck Bowl MVP. Walker broke the game open early with a 69 yard touchdown run highlighting a 125 yard first quarter performance that sealed the Huskies fate while many of 5700 fans were still trying to find seats. The Huskies faithful were never able to generate enthusiasm as the Huskies attack sputtered throughout the contest, leaving the honours to about 40 Calgary fans sitting behind the Dinos bench to make the most noise on this day.
Steven Lumbala also ran wild on the Huskies, adding 156 yards to a Calgary ground attack that had many Huskies fans fondly remembering the days when Blake Nill’s Huskies used to run the ball down the throats of AUS opponents.
Eric Glavic returned to Huskies Stadium where he once performed so many incredible feats as the 2007 Hec Creighton Trophy winner, while leading the Huskies to the Vanier Cup, a game he never played in due to injury. Glavic was a non factor on this day, throwing for a pedestrian 77 yards as he gave way to the high octane Calgary running game which made the highly touted Huskies rush defence look painfully average.
Now healthy and wearing Dino’s red, Glavic will get his chance to win a Vanier Cup next week at Laval. The Dinos will play the Queen’s Golden Gaels after the Gaels upset national powerhouse Laval Rouge et Or 33-30 in Kingston.
The game will be a bitter pill for Rouge et Or fans to swallow, as it was assumed their home team would be playing in the national championship trying to defend their title. If Laval had beaten Queen’s, the match up of Calgary and the Rouge et Or would have been the biggest football game in the team’s history. With Laval now relegated to watching from the stands, it will be surprising if the 16000 capacity stadium comes anywhere close to reaching its maximum attendance.
Glavic’s replacement at Saint Mary’s, Jack Creighton, struggled for the second straight year in a national semi final, throwing 3 interceptions. Creighton was the victim of a strong wind in the face of the Huskies offence in the opening quarter, and the vaunted Huskies ground attack was never able to get going, leaving Creighton with plenty of second down and long yardage situations. Tristan Jones was still suffering from an injured shoulder, leaving his brother Devon and Truro’s Craig Leger to pick up the slack on the ground. Leger led the Huskies with 63 yards.
Fifth year senior Carl Hardwick, whom Justin Palardy called the toughest guy on the team in an interview last week on Haligonia Sports, closed out his outstanding career with 8 catches and 102 yards.
Huskies Head Coach Steve Sumarah was a picture of class as always in defeat. Sumarah made his way to midfield and gave Nill, his former friend and mentor, a quick hug before shaking hands with Calgary assistants. Tension has been high between the two since Glavic’s departure from Saint Mary’s. Nill and Sumarah were always close as coaches with the Huskies and even roomed together on scouting trips after Nill left the program.
Sumarah then gathered his troops on the Huskies side of midfield and led the team in prayer and gave one final salute to the seniors. The loss has to be a bitter one for Sumarah, despite his incredible string o success since taking over the head coach position 4 years ago.
The 2009 Uteck Bowl came and went with barely a whimper, and now were left to ponder a game that had so much promise and anticipation. The Huskies were never able to get anything going against a clearly superior team, and the loss brings to a close what could arguably be the most disappointing season of AUS football in years.

Notes from the AUS
Had my first experience with a Flipcam on Saturday for the Uteck. All the videos I shot in the first half are sideways.....Forgot to have the camera rolling when Nill and Sumarah hugged after the game. It was pretty quick and void of emotion....the constant blaring of music and advertising really took away from the game. Do they really have to play a song between every single play?.....Looks who’s back: The X-Men basketball team. Coach K came into the Dalplex on Sunday and beat the nationally ranked Tigers by 11 points gaining a measure of revenge for last season’s loss in the AUS championship. It was a 4 point game in the standings so that’s a huge win for the undefeated X-Men......I talked to Coach Ross Quackenbush last week at Dalhousie and he mentioned being concerned about playing a 2 game set in NFLD vs. an improved MUN team. Sure enough the Huskies had to settle for a split.....Sean Gillis, the voice of the Rainmen, was talking AUS bball with me on the sidelines at the Uteck and he said any talk of the conference being down this year is highly exaggerated. Dal, Cape Breton, Acadia, X, and Saint Mary’s are all looking very good. It is a year where the bottom 3 teams may not be that great, with MUN showing the most promise. UNB and UPEI look like they are going to struggle....Covered the Dal Men’s Ice hockey game for ssncanada.ca on Friday and the Tigers played very well in a 3-2 loss to Acadia. The Axemen are playing solid, disciplined hockey and are currently in second place in a conference that has 2 of the 3 best teams in the country, the undefeated UNB V-Reds and the Huskies.... If you get a chance to see the UNB Varsity Reds men’s hockey team play this year, take it. They are very, very good. Right now they are 11-0 and I would not be surprised to see them go undefeated in the country’s toughest conference. The Reds play the Huskies on Jan.15 and the Tigers on Feb.6 (ssncanada.ca).....I wouldn’t want to be a Huskies hockey player this week. Chances are very good that Trevor Steinburg is not pleased with his squad dropping 2 games over the weekend, including 1 over a UPEI team that has had a very distracting week with their head coach resigning.

Uteck Bowl Preview on Haligonia Sports

This friday join me and Coach John Macneil of Eastlink for a preview of this weekend's Uteck Bowl, pitting the Calgary Dinos and the Saint Mary's Huskies. Emotions will be running high at Huskies Stadium as former Head Coach Blake Nill and former star Quarterback Eric Glavic return to Halifax to play Steve Sumarah's AUS champion Huskies.

Haligonia Sports will be live this friday at Noon on haligonia.ca! Get ready for the big game with me and Coach Macneil, as we break down the most highly anticipated Uteck Bowl in years!
See you then!

Capers AUS Soccer Champs. Great Scott! April's Back.

Hero to Goat in 60 Seconds: The Curious Case of Jimmy Mayaleh

Two weekends ago I covered the AUS Men’s Soccer championships at Dalhousie University for ssncanada.ca. It was certainly one of the most bizarre yet beautiful championship weekends I had ever been associated with.
The three day event was chalk full of upsets, individual flashes of brilliance, contentious altercations between players and fans, and of course, a classic Halifax weekend of weather that forced the postponement of games and brought freezing cold temperatures to the pitch once play finally got started.
On quarter final Saturday, only one goal was scored through 2 games, a brilliant header by the magical Olivier Babineau in the closing minutes of overtime during game one, giving Moncton an upset win over UNB. In the second game, Danny Mcalleer won the match for PEI in penalty shots, after Saint Francis Xavier’s outstanding rookie, Max Mound, saw his attempt go harmlessly wide of the right post. If you watched the game on ssncanada, you could hear the shivering and shallow breathing of me and Matt Fegan as we called the last hour of the game in freezing temperatures.
On semi final Sunday, the four teams combined for 14 goals, both contests finishing with a 4-3 score. In the opener, Cape Breton scored 4 goals in the first half, and then had to hold on as Cinderella Moncton made a late charge to draw within 1 goal, but could not get the equalizer. In the day’s finale, last year’s AUS champion Dalhousie Tigers were upset on their home pitch by the upstart PEI Panthers. Jerrod Murphy and Jimmy Mayaleh played brilliantly in leading UPEI to the stunning win over the heavily favoured Tigers.
The final was played Monday morning on a beautiful, sunny day in Halifax. Cape Breton held a 1 goal lead well into the final minutes, when Jimmy Mayaleh found open space for the first time in the match, and drilled a strike past the Cape Breton keeper to tie the game at one.
Charlottetown’s Mayaleh was an instant hero for his hometown school, and to celebrate he ran around the field while removing his jersey. This earned him an automatic yellow card, seemingly an easy price to pay for the amount of joy the underdog Panthers felt as they drew even with the mighty Capers.
However just seconds after Cape Breton kicked off, Mayaleh let loose with a vicious and unnecessary challenge at midfield that drew another yellow card, earning Mayaleh an ejection from the match.
Mayaleh walked off the pitch looking like a man desperate for a hole to crawl in. The same turf that, just 1 minute previous, he had been dancing around minus his shirt, celebrating the goal of the tournament. Down to 10 men, the Panthers would go on to lose to the Capers, Keishon Bean scoring the game winning goal just 20 seconds into the first overtime to give Cape Breton an AUS Championship.
As a result of the red card, Mayaleh was forced to miss the team’s opening match at nationals this past weekend vs Laval, a match the Panthers would lose 3-1.
One of the great things about watching college and university athletes is the constant balance between incredible feats of performance and mind boggling mistakes of innocence. These athletes do things that make you jump out of your seat and simply marvel at the level of performance they can obtain. They also make mistakes, usually a result of the immensity of the moment that can simply break your heart. That’s when you step back, take a moment, and remind yourself: they’re just kids.

AUS Notes and Observations
The Dalhousie Tigers Men’s basketball team is very legitimate. I covered the Tiger’s games this past weekend vs. Memorial. Although the Tigers were inconsistent against the scrappy Seahawks, the disparity in talent levels between the two teams was very evident. Simon Farine is looking like the best player in the AUS, while newcomers Joe Schow and Mari Peoples-Wong showed flashed of brilliance in both games. Schow gives the Tigers the first legitimate big man in the John Campbell era, while Mari Peoples Wong may be the most athletic player in Tigers history.......I chatted with Scott Munro, head coach of SMU Huskies basketball on Sunday. The coach seems very happy with his Huskies team thus far. First year guard Justine Colley is as good as advertised and Laure Pitifield has brought alot of experience and offence to a Huskies team that was desperate for a presence in the post......The AUS Men’s Volleyball conference will be business as usual for the Dalhousie Tigers. Memorial is still a bad team while UNB does not appear to be much better than last season’s 8-10 effort. The Tigers swept the Reds fairly easily in weekend action at the Dalplex. The Reds actually hung close on Friday but were dismissed quickly in straight sets on Saturday.......Can’t wait for the Uteck Bowl. Dream match up for Huskies fans; the return of Blake Nill and Eric Glavic. The Huskies will have Devon Jones for the game, still no word on his brother Tristan. I had an interview with placekicker Justin Palardy on Friday’s episode of Haligonia Sports http://live.haligonia.ca/halifax-ns/sports/6276-haligonia-sports-episode-18-.html........ April Scott is back. I was covering the women’s volleyball game at Dalplex on Saturday for ssncanada when I looked down and saw April Scott walking around in a Tiger’s basketball uniform. I literally rubbed my eyes. AUS coaches must feel like Scott has unlimited eligibility. The 5th year senior is taking Dental Hygiene at Dal and decided mid week to dress up for the Tigers after taking last season off. Scott’s presence in the backcourt is a godsend for Coach Anna Stammburger as she has been playing rookies Trish Mcneil and Anna Von Maltzahn along with senior Rachel Harrison. The combination had been getting killed by full court pressure but Scott brings the type of ball control and smarts that makes everybody on the team better. 5th year posts Laura and Leah Girdwood got multiple easy baskets all weekend with Scott in the line-up, while Harrison was arguably the Tigers best player. The return of Scott paid immediate dividends, as the Tigers claimed their first victory of the season on Sunday vs. a tough Memorial Seahawks squad....This weekend I’ll be covering the Dalhousie Tiger’s men’s hockey game vs Acadia on Friday night at 7:00 on ssncanada.ca. Also tune in to CKDU Sports Tuesday at 10:30 am on CKDU 88.1 or ckdu.ca, and I’ll have a special Uteck Bowl preview show on Friday’s Haligonia Sports with Coach John Mcneil of Eastlink. The show airs Friday at noon on haligonia.ca.

Tigers Get First Win; AUS Soccer Championship Preview

Hockey Tigers Get First Win
Pete Belliveau’s Dalhousie Tigers men’s hockey team got their first conference win this past Friday night at the Dalhousie Memorial Arena. The Tigers withstood a late rally from the Moncton Blue Eagles to win 6-4.
The Tigers have 11 fresh faces on this year’s rebuilding squad, but it was a familiar face that led the way in this contest.
Captain and 4th year senior Jeff Larsh scored a hat trick to pace the Tigers, his third marker coming at the midway point of the second period.
Larsh’s first goal came 30 seconds into the game and was followed a minute later by a highlight goal from Kenzie Sheppard. A streaking Sheppard took a long pass from Ben Van Lare and scored on the breakaway with a nifty backhanded move.
Trevor Mackenzie also scored for the Tigers and Ronald Kelly added an empty netter to put the game away late in the third period.
Dean Ouellet scored a goal and added an assist to garner player of the game honours for Moncton. Bobby Nadeau stopped 33 shots for the Tigers to get his first victory of his university career, after playing 5 years in the QMJHL.
The next afternoon at the arena, the Tigers played the St.Thomas Tommies to a standstill after 70 minutes of regulation and overtime, but lost in the shootout.
Dartmouth’s Cory Banfield returned to the HRM as a Tommie and scored the game winning shootout goal. Banfield also scored in the first period on route to being named player of the game.
Patrick Sweeney led the Tigers with 2 assists. Ronald Kelly added a goal and registered a stellar two way performance to spark a Tigers comeback late in the third. Trailing 3-1, the Tigers scored 2 goals to force overtime and ensure themselves of at least a point in the standings.
The Tigers are now 1-3-2 and are tied for last place with Moncton. The Tigers have shown strength at the Memorial Arena, now 1-0-2 after 3 home games.
Dalhousie plays Acadia Wednesday night in Wolfville, and then come home for a pair of weekend games, vs. PEI on Friday night, and the UNB Varsity Reds on Saturday night. Both games start at 7:00 and can be seen live on ssncanada.ca.

AUS Soccer Championships at Dalhousie
The reigning AUS Champion Dalhousie Tigers men’s soccer team will play host for the 2009 championships. The Tigers will be the number 2 seed and play their first game on Saturday at 3:00 vs. the highest remaining seed from Friday’s quarter finals. The Cape Breton Capers are the tournament’s top seed and will play the lowest remaining seed on Saturday at noon.
#3 UNB plays #6 Moncton at Noon on Friday, followed by #4 UPEI vs. #5 St Francis Xavier.
Weather is expected to be a major factor for Friday’s games. The forecast is calling for heavy rains and cool temperatures. Saturday’s games should see crisp but clear weather, while Sunday’s final is expected to be a beautiful day.
Tigers Head Coach Pat Nearing was a guest on CKDU Sports this past Tuesday. Nearing said that the flu epidemic will probably be a bigger storyline than the weather. The Tigers have had players miss time the last couple of weeks due to illness, and he thinks the other teams are in the same boat.
If the Tigers make it to the final vs. Cape Breton, coach Nearing hopes to take advantage of the Capers attacking style. “(The Capers) are quick. Their whole team has an attacking mentality,” said Nearing. “They come at you in waves and it could create some opportunities for counter attack, a chance for one on one with our strikers. If that happens, I fancy our chances.”
Nearing also added that when the Tigers lost to Cape Breton in Sydney, they were without the services of starting strikers Hamzeh Afani and Michel Daoust-Wheatley.
Finally, Nearing warned fans not to book Cape Breton and Dalhousie as automatic participants in Sunday’s final. “The AUS is so tight and soccer is the cruellest of sports,” said Nearing. “It’s a game of upsets, affected by weather, surface....you could dominate a game from start to finish and lose 1-0.”
The entire tournament will be shown on ssncanada.ca. Join me and Matt Fegan at 12:00 on Friday for the first game of the 2009 championships.

Notes and Observations
Despite the Halifax Mooseheads horrible record, and the fact they are a bad hockey team, I’ve written on several occasions that, at the very least, they play hard and give it everything they have. Which is why I was so disappointed to read on Friday morning several Mooseheads players saying they came out flat and unprepared for their loss to Montreal on Thursday night at the Metro Centre. When you are 1-17-1, how do you possibly come out flat for a home game vs. a mediocre team? You’d think they would have been geared up for a possible win, considering there may only be 8-10 wins on the table for the rebuilding squad this year.....Does the Blue Jays announcement to keep Cito Gaston as manager 1 more season before turning him into a consultant seem strange to anyone else? What good does this do for the organization? Make him a consultant now and let the new GM hire a new manager. What can Cito do for the Jays in 2010 besides mismanage his pitching staff and inspire absolutely no one to do any more than the bare minimum......Watching Pedro Martinez pitch with a mid-eighties fastball and a beer gut is fun. A stark contrast to the days when he was a fire-baller with the Sox and looked about 140 pounds soaking wet. But the guy can still pitch, although, as I write this, Matsui just took him deep in game 6 (“who’s your daddy?”)....AUS basketball starts this weekend. The Tigers play UNB on Friday night while the Huskies have a tough 2 game set in Cape Breton. The women’s games will be very interesting with the defending champion Capers hosting the new and improved Huskies with their highly touted recruiting class.....the Acadia Axemen walking into Antigonish this weekend and beating the X-Men in the AUS Football semi-final would be akin to the Miracle on Ice in 1980, when a gutsy bunch of Americans led by Ken Morrow beat the Soviet Union. Even if Acadia manages to hang tough with the X-Men, the Gary Waterman “love in” on campus could come to a crashing halt. But it’s not going to happen. X wins by 21 points at least.....The Dalhousie Tigers women’s basketball team could be in for a rough November. After looking very unimpressive in pre-season, the Tigers have a tough first term conference schedule featuring games against MUN, CBU, and X. The Tigers are desperate for Alex Legge to return, but she won’t be back until January. Until then the team’s youthful backcourt will have its hands full with some very physical and experienced opponents.