The Bears are roaring through the season, with great results coming from our field hockey, soccer and harriers teams in recent days.

Field Hockey: On October 11th, each of the School’s four field hockey teams was in action in the CISAA league. Bigside edged out Branksome Hall, 1-0. Middleside DII had a strong showing against Holy Trinity School, winning 1-0 at home. Middleside DIII won a nailbiter at Ridley College, 1-0. And Littleside had a blockbuster day at Holy Trinity School, beating Lakefield 3-0 and then scoring a big win over the home team, 6-0.

On October 12th, the Bigside team headed to Queen’s University for a tournament, held on turf and featuring a stacked field of 12 talented teams. Compared to the grass pitch the team is used to, field hockey on turf is a different game – much faster and requiring more control of the ball. The team adjusted quickly and well to the change, and came home with a second-place finish overall!

CAIS National Soccer Tournament: The Bigside boys were at Ridley this past week participating in the CAIS National Tournament. While we only managed one goal in pool play against the likes of Selwyn House, Upper Canada and Lakefield, we were particularly stingy on defence and our goal differential landed us in the Silver division. We played Saltus Grammar from Bermuda in the quarter-finals and defeated them, 2-0. We then played Holy Trinity in the semi-finals and managed another victory (3-1) to put us through to the final against host school, Ridley. We scored first but lost the war of attrition (2-1) in what was our sixth, 70-minute game in three days. The boys were understandably knackered by the end of the tournament but no serious injuries were sustained, which is a blessing when it comes to our return to the regular CISAA league season next week. There were several notable performances throughout the tournament but our captain, Nick Damiani, and goalkeeper, Liam Small, both played every minute of every game and they were standouts in each of the games. – By Blair Keiser, coach

U-14 and Middleside Boys Soccer: The Under-14 soccer squad had its first league game on October 3rd, hosting Pickering College and coming away with a 6-2 victory. The team then followed up on October 10th with a 3-1 win over St. Andrew’s (click here to read more). Middleside posted a scoreless draw with Pickering College on October 11th.

Harriers: The Senior School harriers enjoyed a great day, with cool, sunny weather perfect for cross-country running, at the Lakefield College School Invitational on October 11th. This event was a chance to test out the course that will host the CISAA Championships later in the month. The Junior boys, Senior girls and Senior boys teams all placed first in their divisions, while the Novice boys and Junior girls placed second.

Fourteen athletes earned top-10 finishes:

• Noah Shepherd – 1st (Novice boys)
• Evan Thomas – 6th (Novice boys)
• Abby Richards – 1st (Junior girls)
• Bianca Rigamonte – 8th (Junior girls)
• Nalajoss Ellsworth – 9th (Junior girls)
• Caden Keystone – 7th (Junior boys)
• Michael Hassard – 8th (Junior boys)
• Charlotte Patterson – 2nd (Senior girls)
• Avery Vrooman – 8th (Senior girls)
• Abby Moorjani – 10th (Senior girls)
• Andrew Richards – 3rd (Senior boys)
• Aidan Small – 5th (Senior boys)
• James Hassard – 6th (Senior boys)
• Justin Samson – 9th (Senior boys)