It was a textbook example of a nail-biter at the Dan Snyder arena February 28 as the EDSS girls’ hockey team battled the visiting Waterloo-Oxford Crusaders in the Waterloo County Secondary School Athletics Association (WCSSAA) finals, clinching the victory in overtime.
It took just one goal to put this game away, with the game-winner for EDSS coming off the stick of Haylee Clemmer in an additional fourth period of play.
While the girls claimed the finals at home last Thursday afternoon, the boys followed suit the same evening, capping off their undefeated season with a 4-3 victory against the Galt Ghosts, also decided in overtime.
Fresh of their county-level wins, both teams headed to the Central Western Ontario Secondary Schools Association (CWOSSA) regionals this week. The boys kicked off their CWOSSA games on Monday in Fergus, pulling to the top of their three-team pool in day one of the two-day event. The girls joined the CWOSSA championships at the Hespeler Memorial Arena a day later, on Tuesday, with the regional finals decided Wednesday.
“It was really good, because the last time we played them we had a little bit of a tough loss 6-0, so it felt pretty good to win this time,” said Lancer OT hero Clemmer, who scored the lone goal of Thursday’s WCSSAA finals. The EDSS girls suffered just one loss over the regular season this year in a rout by Waterloo-Oxford, making the final game an especially sweet victory for the Elmira team.
“Well I couldn’t have done it without Delanie,” added Clemmer. “She put pressure on them in their own zone, and then the defense shot it up and then it was in my hand on the ice and all of a sudden it was in the net.”
While Clemmer brought home the win for Elmira in the final stanza, the team’s netminder, Taya Beacom, swatted down the WODSS offense over the full four periods.
“It was a pretty stressful game. But she played amazing in net, really helped out,” said Clemmer of Beacom, who kept Waterloo-Oxford off the scoreboard and paved the way for the win.
“Yeah the team’s pretty good,” said Beacom. “We were in the box a lot. They had a lot of shots from the point that I had to see through the screen, but other than that it was good.”
Both EDSS and WO advanced from the Waterloo County league to the CWOSSA games at Hespeler this week, making another meeting of the two teams a possibility. The Lady Lancers were pitted in a three-team pool against Centre Wellington and Owen Sound on day one of the championships, Tuesday, while Waterloo-Oxford was set to battle St. Mary’s in Kitchener and Brantford. The top teams of the respective pools would go on to settle their differences yesterday (Wednesday) in the championships finals.
The boys, meanwhile, battled Owen Sound and Orangeville on Monday, placing first over the three teams. On Tuesday, the EDSS team was scheduled to battle boys’ contingent of Waterloo-Oxford’s in the CWOSSA semifinals.
The girls of EDSS, for their part, were ready for the challenge.
“At CWOSSA? Yeah I like our chances. I’m excited. If we play like this, then I think we’ll have no problem,” said Beacom.
