Perseverance is driving force behind successful season for PDHS boy’s hockey team

By Casandra Turnbull

It was a Cinderella story of sorts, as the Paris High School boy’s hockey team made it to OFSAA for the first time ever, and as the small school with the big heart, they quickly became the fan-favourite team, competing against some of Ontario’s top ranked teams.

The Panthers travelled to St. Catharines this week to compete in the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations ‘AA’ playoffs They qualified for the allOntario tournament after they won the Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk and the Central Western Ontario Secondary School trophies. Their first loss of the season took place during OFSAA preliminary play against the number one ranked school in Ontario, St. Mary’s. The final score was 6-4.

One of PDHS’ coaches, Joshua Gowing, described that game as a back-and-forth battle that saw four lead changes. The aggressive play resulted in some injuries on Paris’bench

Paris had two wins and one loss in preliminary play. The Panthers then advanced to the quarter finals where they beat the number two ranked St Francis Catholic School, 5-3

“The quarter final was a hard-fought game. We went up 3-0 before St Francis tied it 3-3 With 1:15 seconds, we scored the winner and then capped it off with an empty net goal,” said Gowing.

Winning the quarter finals ensured the team would play for a medal, whether it was gold or bronze, depended on the outcome of Thursday morning’s game against Stratford’s St. Michael’s School. It was an evenly matched battle with no one scoring in regulation time Unfortunately, Stratford won 1-0 in overtime. That loss sent Paris to the bronze medal game against Regiopolis-Notre Dame CSS from Kingston. Paris, down some key players, lost the game 3-1.

“Although they did not win, they proved to everyone watching they could hang with the bigger centres. Through the OFSAA tournament they became fan favourites,” said Gowing. “They made everyone watching at the arena, and back at home, extremely proud,” he added

The Panthers celebrate following a 5-3 win against St. Francis Catholic School during the quarter final game at OFSAA this week. It was Paris’ first trip (for the boys team) to OFSAA, where they finished 4th in Ontario.