Late game effort gives Royals the win

November 18, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

Tuesday, November 15’s high school game between the Centre Dufferin District High School Royals and the Centennial CVI Spartans from Guelph came down to the final few seconds when the Royals slipped the tie breaker past the Spartans goalie with 19 seconds left on the clock.

Centennial got an early lead in the afternoon game scoring the opener at five minutes into the first period then following up with a nice play picking up the rebound to score and give the Spartans a 2-0 lead.

Royals forward Kyle Besley put the Shelburne team on the scoreboard with a rocket from the point that made its way through the crowd and into the back the Centennial net.

Shelburne’s Jackson Nasato tied the game at two with another blistering shot from way out and near the boards that picked off the corner of the Spartans’ net.

A scramble in front of the Royals net gave the Centennial the lead when a Spartans player managed to get the puck across the goal.

Returning for the third period, the game was again tied when Shelburne’s Charlie Ardis scored at 1:14 into the frame.

That was followed up by a slick moved in front of the net and a deke around the Spartan’s goalie by Jesse Sterling to place the Royals up 4-3 at the midway mark.

With 1:29 left on the clock the Guelph team scored to make it a 4-4 tie with little time remaining, but Royals’ forward Jesse Sterling stepped up and got his second of the game and the winning goal with just 19 seconds on the clock to give the Royals a 5-4 win.

It is their second win in as many games for the 2016 season.

The CDDHS squad is a young team this season but showing a lot of skill.

“We have two defenceman that are seniors and that’s it,” said coach Bill Bradford. “Most of them are in Grade 11 and we have some Grade Tens. The line that scored are AA midget players and we’ve a couple of Grey-Bruce AAA guys. The rest are Shelburne rep hockey players. We didn’t know what to expect today. Some of the Guelph teams don’t always bring a full line-up to Shelburne. It looked like had a full squad there today so Centennial’s a toss-up, we never know what we’re going to get with them. They’ve got some good hockey player’s there.”

The Royals will be back on home ice at the CDRC on Tuesday, November 22, when the host the Orangeville District Secondary School Bears.

Game time is 2:00 p.m.