Trent Excalibur took on the Humber College Hawks at the Justin Chiu Stadium in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) men’s varsity rugby champion- ship finals.
The match took place this past Sunday afternoon, November 18, at 1pm.
With both teams heading into the finals with seven wins and zero loses—unde- feated seasons—it was going to be a game no one will soon forget. Both teams fought hard, but unfortunately, Trent was defeated by Humber 39-24. The first half of the game started off with Humber getting the kick-off. Within the first five minutes Humber had made their mark on the board with the first penalty of the game. They received quite a few penal- ties, and it did not go unnoticed, as a fan from the crowd came forward and yelled: “Hey Humber, have you learned the rules yet? You’re getting a lot of penalties!”
After the first 20 minutes of the game, the penalties finally stopped, but the tries started coming, as #11 Etienne Roberts from Humber scored the first try of the game. The conversion was not completed. Before the first half was over the Hum- ber Hawks scored another four tires, scored by #8 Ed Donnely, #15 Joseph Ginsberg, and #10 Phil Boone. Only 2 out of 5 conversions were completed. The first half of the game ended with Humber winning 29-0, as Trent could not get past the Humber defences to score a try. Once the second half of the game began, the Trent Excalibur’s kicked it up a notch, and gained momentum during those final 40 minutes.
Trent started off the second half with the kick-off. Once Humber had the ball they went with it, and #15 Joseph Ginsberg scored another try within the first four minutes, however the conversion was not made. But Trent wasn’t going to let them win that easily, as they battled for the ball, and finally had the advantage.
The first try of the game for Trent was score by #7 Kevin Lee and the conversion was not made. With Humber having the ball again at the center of the field, they were able to push through Trent’s defense and #6 Jack Smith was able to score one more try for the Humber team.
This did not stop Trent, it only built up their determination. During the last ten minutes of the game, Trent pushed for- ward with all their might, and scored 3 more tries made by #18 Warren Snowden, #22 Trevor Roberts and #10 Graham Ab- bott. Graham was also able to make two of the three conversions. Unfortunately,
it was not enough to catch up to Hum- ber, and Trent was defeated 39-24, mak- ing them the silver medalist for the 2012 OCAA championship.
After the game, each team picked a MVP for the game. Trent Excalibur named their forward #3 Timothy Dineen, while the Humber Hawks chose #10 Phil Boone. Even though Trent did not win, the whole crowd chanted “We love Trent” to show both their support and how proud they were that the team had made it this far.