Titans swept by Tavistock in Doherty Division playoffs

George Le Gresley

Sports Reporter

The Paris Titans, down 2 games in the best-of-7 playoff series against the Tavistock Braves, have a mountain to climb to reach the next round of the PJHL’S  Doherty Division playoff series. Last Monday, they headed off to Tavistock, where in the first period the Braves had a hefty 22 shots on Paris's goalie, Colton Thompson, but still led on the scoreboard, 3-2, at the end of the first period.  Cole Kersey had two goals and brother Blake Kersey scored a power play goal.

The second period was all Tavistock, scoring 3 goals, one of them short-handed on a Titans’ power play. The period ended with Tavistock leading 5-3. The period Tavistock again scored a short-handed goal on a Paris power play to make the score 6-3, followed by a Jack Kersey goal for the Titans and an empty net goal for Tavi at the end of the game for a 7-4 final and a 3 game to 0 lead in the series.

Next up was game 4, an 8:30 start in Tavistock, where the Braves jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first period and a 4-0 lead after the second period. Blake Kersey scored early in the period to drop the scoring deficit to 4-1. Tavistock followed up with three more goals, two of those being power play goals to stretch their lead 7-1. The period ended with Aiden Switzer scoring a power play goal and Keegan Clarke scoring for a 7-3 final in favour of Tavistock, who swept the Titans on four games straight.

To summarize this season being a failure for the Titans is an understatement, and the fault doesn’t necessarily fall to the players. The team had, at my count, four coaching changes and a General Manager leaving. I have no idea why all these changes happened, but this turmoil can cause havoc with a team’s progress toward developing a philosophy for playing hockey. The only solution for next season is consistency behind the bench to take full advantage of the talent on their roster.