Open B ringette
St. Albert teams were in the thick of things in the Ringette Alberta open B medal finals Sunday at Servus Credit Union Place.
The St. Albert Stealth settled for silver in the 6-5 loss to Medicine Hat as the go-ahead goal was scored with 2:33 remaining.
The Stealth were led by Brandy Hanson’s hat trick and singles from Sarah Stengel and Rachel Douzeich.
In the semifinals, Amy Buschkiel stood on her head stopping 51 shots while Stengel sniped the winner on the team’s 24th shot with 5.3 seconds remaining in double overtime to edge out the Riviere Qui Barre Twisters.
The Twisters went on to defeat the St. Albert Edge 4-2 for bronze. A tight defence limited the Edge’s scoring chances.
In pool A of the eight-team tournament, the Edge shaded the Stealth 5-4 before overpowering Calgary Absolut 7-4 and Calgary Defiance 7-0.
The Stealth also beat the Defiance 9-5 and Absolut 4-3.
The Stealth lineup featured 14 players from last year’s provincial championship 24-12-3 Senior B’s team. Hanson potted the OT winner in the final with 6.7 seconds left in the second extra period for the 2-1 victory over Calgary Blaze in Calgary.
The Edge, a first-year team with a younger roster than the Stealth in the open 18-plus division, were 22-3-1 entering provincials, compared to the 19-7-4 Stealth.
Mixed playdowns
The Doug McLennan rink booked a spot at the Curling Alberta mixed championship as the B qualifier in last weekend’s playdowns at Camrose.
McLennan, third Kim Zsakai, second Lyle Biever and lead Brenda Doroshuk stole the winning point in the last end of Sunday’s 6-5 final against Craig MacAlpine of the Saville Centre.
The St. Albert/Spruce Grove foursome tied it at five with a deuce in six and the next end was blanked.
MacAlpine scored a three-spot in three for a 3-2 lead and made it 5-3 with a deuce in five.
McLennan finished 4-1 in the 13-team competition with victories of 7-5 against Corey Leach of Lac La Biche and 5-3 against Guy Algot of Sherwood Park before the 6-2 loss in seven ends to Glen Hansen of Spruce Grove.
Hansen was McLennan’s skip on the 2015 provincial senior (50-plus) championship rink that finished fourth at nationals.
McLennan led 2-1 after a steal of one in five but a pick in six resulted in a three-ender for Hansen, followed by a steal of two in seven.
Hansen went on to win the A qualifier 9-6 over MacAlpine.
McLennan rebounded from the loss with a 9-3 rout in seven ends against Troy DeCiccio of Whitecourt before polishing off MacAlpine for a berth at the March 27 to 31 provincials at the Shamrock.
Last month at the senior provincials in Spruce Grove, McLennan was the third and Biever the lead curling on the Randy Guidinger rink with Conrad Yaremchuk that went 0-7.
U13 soccer
The U13 St. Albert Frostbites female community indoor soccer team kicked it up a notch to win the Edmonton Minor Soccer Association championship.
The Frostbites qualified for the four-team round-robin playoffs by winning their last league game 5-0 to finish second at 8-2-3 behind Willowby in the division standings and never looked back.
The playoff results were 1-0 against Willowby with Maryn McRobie scoring, 1-1 against Greenfield with Corah Strain finding the back of the net and 2-0 against St. Albert Chalupa as Strain tallied twice.
Goalkeeper Emily Pillott recorded two shutouts.
The team's head coach is Erin Hettle.
Visit www.StAlbertToday.ca to view the team’s championship picture.
Edmonton Gold 7s
The St. Albert Rugby Football Club was represented by seven males on the U16 Edmonton Gold silver-medal team at the Vancouver International 7s last weekend.
The Gold finished second in the table on day one of the seven-team tournament before going into the knockout phase. The 33-0 quarter-final win over Manitoba was followed by the 22-10 victory over Langley after falling behind by seven to the eventual third-place finishers.
The final was against the B.C. Elite Youth Sevens and the score was unavailable.
The SARFC players on the 12-man roster were Alex Bennett, Luke Feraco, Jacob King, David Kociuba, Dominic LeClercq, Josh Looker and Quillen Andrews. The coach is Paul Looker of SARFC.
The rest of the Edmonton Gold teams at the Vancouver 7s included SARFC players Autumn Butlin and Shea McMahon with the bronze-medal U18 females in the nine-team draw, Rowan Andrews with the fourth-place U18 males in the eight-team draw and Julia Baniak, Ayana Blackwell and Paikea Wall with the fourth-place U16 females in the six-team draw.
