OCAA MEN'S RUGBY DIVISION I CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

For the second straight year the defending champion, Humber Hawks, will play in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) Championship gold medal game. On November 8th, 2008 the gold medal will be up for grabs at Fletcher’s Field in Markham, ON. Their opponents the Fleming Knights of Peterborough are last years defending OCAA bronze medalists.

The OCAA Championship game will start at 12:00pm, with the OCAA bronze medal game featuring the Seneca Sting (North York) against the Mohawk Mountaineers (Hamilton) taking place at 10:30am.

The Humber Hawks find themselves back in the title game after a successful season going 6-1 and winning the regular season title. Humber’s march to the final went through the Seneca Sting in the semi-finals defeating the 2007 silver medalists 46-10, led by Jason Carney who posted four tries and Graham Haigh who added a try and three conversions, to reach the gold medal game.

This young Humber team was led by Haigh throughout the regular season. The rookie landed on top of the OCAA scoring board with 84 points in his first season, this is the second consecutive Humber Hawk player to lead the league in scoring. Adam Chianello also held this title in the previous season.

Humber will take on last year’s bronze medal team in the Fleming Knights. The Fleming team were the beasts of the East division going 4-3 this season led by rookie Chris Simmons. The Knights faced the team they defeated to win the 2007-2008 bronze medal, the Mohawk Mountaineers, in the semi finals and with history on Flemings side, they came out with a 26-7 victory to advance to the Championship game.

The match up will be the second meeting of the year with the first game being played on October 19. The game ended in a 33-13 Humber victory with Haigh scoring 13 of his league leading 84 points. Game two will be the first time in OCAA Championship history that these two teams have met in the finals and Fleming will be looking for a different result.

The Championship bronze medal game will see the Seneca Sting facing off against the Mohawk Mountaineers. The 07-08 silver medalists, Sting, will look to hold off the Mountaineers and more specifically the OCAA All Time scoring leader James Cumpson. Cumpson finished second in league scoring with 63 points vaulting him into first all-time with 205 points in 21 games.

In the first meeting this season between these two teams the team from Hamilton were victorious with a 34-7 win over Seneca with Cumpson scoring nine points. This will be an entertaining game as Seneca goes for their 10th medal in as many years and Mohawk attempt to get back on the podium for the first time since the 2006 season.

Semi-Final Results
Fleming defeating Mohawk 26-7
Humber defeating Seneca 46-10

Championship Games
Saturday, November 8th, 2008 @ Fletcher’s Fields, Markham ON.

OCAA Bronze Medal Game – Mohawk vs. Seneca 10:30am
OCAA Gold Medal Game – Fleming vs. Humber 12:00pm