The Patrick Fogarty Catholic Secondary School girls’ varsity lacrosse team continued their four years of dominance Wednesday afternoon by defeating their cross-town rivals at Orillia Secondary School 13-1 to earn the Georgian Bay Secondary School Association crown.
During the initial moments of the game, it seemed the weather would play a factor as a heavy downpour pummelled the field at the West Orillia Sports Complex.
OSS Grade 9 student Amy Hangman took advantage of the weather by driving down the field to net the first goal of the game, giving the Nighthawks a brief lead.
As the rain cleared up the Nighthawks spent the remainder of the afternoon trying to contain the Flames' powerful offence.
The Flames were led offensively by Grade 12 star Jerica Obee who was the game's top point getter with two goals and four assists.
Obee’s favourite target seemed to be Grade 10 student Kassidy Morris, who was set up by Obee for two of her three goals. Morris tallied five points by the end of the afternoon.
When Morris was asked what she credits her success to, the answer was very straight forward.
“Jerica (Obee),” said Morris.
“We play a lot together, we are always feeding each other and seem to have a good feel for where the other one is on the field, it’s just a good connection,” said Morris.
In Obee’s four-year career with the Flames, they have never lost a game, and the thrill of success isn’t wearing thin.
“This run we have been on is pretty special and to continue to play at our best every year is exciting,” Obee said.
The Flames have now won 51 straight games; their last defeat dates back to 2016 when the Nighthawks downed the impressive PF squad.
The Flames now move onto the provincial OFSAA championship, a tournament they have dominated three years in a row.
Obee will move on from the Flames after OFSSA to join St. Bonaventure University in New York to play NCAA Division I lacrosse. She said she would love to finish her Flames career with one more big victory.
“Hopefully we can go into OFSAA and win it, but it’s going to be a lot harder this year,” said Obee.
"We lost one of our key players from last year, but this year we have some new girls who can contribute and I think we are going to do really well."
Morris also spoke about the next challenge for the Flames with confidence.
“I think we can win again but it’s going to be really hard because there is a lot of good teams this time,” Morris said.
As for the Nighthawks, the news wasn't all bad.
Their second team defeated Huntsville’s second team 7-2 earlier in the day. Kaitlyn Near netted four goals in the contest and the team was buoyed by excellent defensive play by Olivia Hunter, Abby Hughes and Sam Ingleton.
