Gemini program in midst of TVRA playoffs, Brown qualifies for OFSAA cross country provincials

Gemini cross country runner Ethan Brown earned a WOSSAA silver medal and OFSAA berth Thursday, October 29 at Strathroy. He qualified to compete in provincial championships Monday, Nov. 9 in Sudbury. (Contributed Photo)

Jeff Tribe, Post Correspondent

The Gemini football program’s coaches liked the great majority of what they saw from their teams in junior/senior playoff matchups against the St. Thomas Parkside Stampeders Friday, Oct. 30 in St. Thomas.

The greatest exception would however be their respective games’ final scores.

“Proud of how they fought and kept in the game,” said junior coach Jordan Fitzmorris of a 21-6 Thames Valley Regional Athletics AA quarter-final loss. “They never quit to the very end.”

“Proud of our boys this year,” said senior bench boss Sean Van Beers after a 15-8 defeat. “Our seniors especially.”

The senior game’s turning point came in the first half’s final three minutes, a touchdown-scoring turnover which broke a 7-7 tie. Parkside would add the lone point of the second half, rounding an eight-point win behind a defence Van Beers described as ‘phenomenal.’

“Absolutely phenomenal.”

The Gemini defence also played a strong game credited coach Lee Janzen, giving up a touchdown on the opening drive.

“And that was it.”

Gemini quarterback Landon Dodsley linked up with receiver Kypton Lofthouse for the Gemini first-half major, place kicker James Strathearn adding the point after.

“Our guys battled the entire game,” credited Van Beers of what he described as an old-fashioned physical match between two Oxford-Elgin rivals, a ‘struggle’ as befitted post-season action. “It was close.”

Depth proved an issue for Tillsonburg, which entered the game down two key players, Terren Janzen due to injury, Kiah Cato to illness. Those who were able to be there however, left every bit of their effort on the field.

“It was a good game,” coach Janzen concluded. “The guys played great.”

The junior Gemini faced what Fitzpatrick described as a well-rounded team, with speed and size.

“It wasn’t our day,” he said, an ability to move the ball frustrated by minor issues in multiple trips to the red zone.

“We were marching on them and hanging in with them,” he said. “The score didn’t reflect how close the game actually was.”

Tillsonburg’s Silas Hawel scored the Gemini touchdown on a strange play, a fumble recovery following which he, and everyone on the field paused in apparent confusion.

“He picked it up and stood there,” said Fitzpatrick, among those yelling at Hawel to ‘Run!’, a message received on the third transmission. “He got some speed on and pounded it into the corner of the endzone.”

This year’s Gemini juniors were a young group continued the coach, a mixture of Grade 10s and 9s, a number of the latter prominent on defence.

“It’s a good group too,” he said, the coaching staff’s closing speech focussed on their future potential.

“They will be a force to be reckoned with.”

Gemini junior boys’ cross country runner Ethan Brown is also in his equivalent of playoffs, finishing an impressive second at Western Ontario Secondary Schools Athletic Association (WOSSAA) championships in Strathroy, Thursday, Oct. 29. Brown completed the junior course in 17:29 minutes, 12 seconds behind the first-place finisher from Parkside and two seconds ahead of two runners in joint third.

Brown’s regional silver medal finish qualifies him for Ontario Federation of School Athletics Associations (OFSAA) championships in Sudbury, Monday, Nov. 9.

Both girls’ basketball teams were scheduled to open their TVRA post-season with preliminary round games against Lord Dorchester Tuesday, Nov. 3, the seniors (after a regular season finale at home to St. Thomas St. Joe’s Monday, Nov. 2) on the road in Dorchester, the 3-5 juniors at home to their 1-7 counterparts. Winners of those games will advance to quarter-finals Thursday, Nov. 5.

The Gemini senior boys’ volleyball team was scheduled to hit the road for a Tuesday, Nov. 3 preliminary round game against the Woodstock CI Red Devils, with a berth in Thursday quarter-finals on the line. The Gemini junior volleyball squad finished the season with a fourth-place 5-3 regular season record, earning the right to host the Ingersoll DCI Blue Bombers (also 5-3) in a Thursday, Nov. 5 quarter-final.