Sons eliminated from All-Ontario championships

A quick glance April 9 at the standings on the website for the 2015 All-Ontario Peewee AAA Championships showed the Nickel City Sons holding down fourth place, the final berth in the semifinals set for Friday.

That did the Sons absolutely no good at all. The reality is that because of their head-to-head loss to the York Simcoe Express on April 8, the Nickel City crew were actually sitting fifth overall, flipping spots with the Express team that, at the moment, occupies that placement on the website.

The Sons are effectively eliminated from playoff contention in a morning encounter on Thursday, beaten 4-1 by the Oakville Rangers. Goals by Cameron Tolani, Luke Evangelista, Marcus Sang and Zack Terry staked the Rangers to a 4-0 lead, with Gavin Brown breaking the shutout bid with under five minutes to play.

The disappointing loss dropped the Nickel City record to 2-3-1, a very competitive mark for the NOHA representatives. Unfortunately, even though York Simcoe subsequently found themselves thumped 9-3 by the first-place Toronto Marlies, their record of 2-3-1 trumped that of the Sons.

A 4-2 York Simcoe win over Nickel City made the difference in the end, as the Sons head home, missing out on a chance to compete for a medal by the slimmest of margins.