The Flamborough novice Auto Clinic Falcons brought home gold from the recent Roadrunners tournament in Cambridge.

The Falcons opened the event with a Friday morning match-up against a team from Oakville.

The Falcons jumped to a 1-0 lead on the first shift of the game and never relented on their way to a 7-0 victory.

The second game on Friday was against a team from Cambridge. Once again, the Falcons scored quickly and dominated the action on their way to a 6-0 shutout.

The third game of the round robin competition was on Saturday against the Stoney Creek Sabres – a stiffer test for the Flamborough team.

Semifinal match

The teams both played strong offensive games, but the Falcons never fell behind and battled to a 7-4 win to move on to the semifinals as the number one seed.

The semifinal match was against another team from Oakville. The Falcons came out firing and cruised to a 8-0 victory and a berth in the final, which was a rematch against Stoney Creek.

The Stoney Creek team played a more defensive strategy in the final. For the first time in the tournament, the Falcons did not score on the first shift, setting the stage for a defensive battle.

The Falcons finally opened the scoring on a goal by Andrea Seguin, who led the tournament in scoring.

After several good stops by both goaltenders, the Falcons pushed the lead to 2-0 on another goal by Seguin.

From there, the Falcons stepped up their defensive efforts and, along with the goaltending of Isabel Konialian, the Flamborough girls hung on for the 2-0 win and the title.

Tournament scorers for the Falcons were Seguin (19 points), Jessica Bonneville (7), Hayley Hood (7), Kendra Ruhl (4), Rachel Poulton (3), Chloe Johnson (2), Vanessa Defazio (2), Emma Gallagher, Rylie Harwood, Naomi Racz and Natalie Paci. Strong efforts also came from Rachel Inwood, Reign Pinter and Lily Swartzentruber.

The Auto Clinic Falcons, along with the Falcons Clairmont Electric team, will now prepare for the local playoff rounds.

Both teams had strong seasons and will therefore be playing in the top tier portion of league playdowns.

Also in novice Falcons action, the Auto Clinic and Clairmont Electric Falcons put together a team to compete in a recent 3-on-3 tournament in Burlington, in which they faced teams made up predominantly of boys.

Three-on-three play

After a slow start and adapting to the strategies of three-on-three play, the girls fought their way to a third-place finish.

The team’s success was forged by strong two-way play from Hailey MacDougall, Gallagher, Swartzentruber, Johnson, Cassidi Clairmont, Brianna Ryder, and Bree Shelestynsky-Green, while the offence was led by Seguin, Avery Kitchen and Kate MacLeod. Sarah McGrath was strong in net throughout the tournament.

-Submitted by Todd Ruhl