Jared Lalonde
Sports Reporter

OSHAWA – The favourite North team and the underdogs from Lakeshore wound up in the same place at the provincial extramural hockey championship as both Humber squads failed to make the quarter-finals.
North entered the 12 team tournament as the top seed when it was upset 2-1 in its opening game of the two day competition against 12th-seeded University of Toronto Scarborough last Thursday night.
“Our guys definitely didn’t show up,” said North coach Brett McCully. “They didn’t want it.”
A 3-1 victory over Canadore and a shootout loss to Georgian Orillia failed to advance North out of round-robin play at the tournament hosted by Durham College.
With a record of 12-0-1-1 in their last three tournaments, North captain Scott Creighton said his team was simply overconfident.
“I think we came into this tournament with high expectations,” said Creighton. “We really thought we would win, and just cake-walk to the semis.”
North forward Matt Hughson said the team was hoping to perform better than last year, where it went winless in all three games after entering the Challenge Cup as the second seed.
“It usually takes us a game or two to warm up,” added Hughson, “but in this tournament, you don’t have that time. The competition is just too strong.”
Lakeshore, the seventh-seed, entered the tournament with lower expectations.
“We made it to the final tournament, which was our goal all year,” said coach Josh Davison.
His team lost to sixth-ranked Georgian Barrie 5-4 and to third-ranked George Brown 3-2.
Davison said he is proud of his team and the determination it displayed.
“They showed tremendous heart,” said Davison. “But that’s hockey. You work for the breaks and they’re not going to come to you without work, and our team worked very hard today.”
Davison said he has already begun retooling the team for next season and is excited about the future.
“We have to start looking ahead to next year,” said Davison. “That’s really all you can do.”