SHERIDAN 19, MOHAWK 15

OAKVILLE, Ont. - They may have trailed by 10 points on two separate occasions in the second half but thanks to a rally in the final half hour - capped by a converted try in the 78th minute - the Sheridan Bruins men's rugby team (1-3 OCAA) picked up their first OCAA win, 19-15, over Mohawk.

"It feels really good because the players now believe that they can win," head coach Carlos Moniz said. "You can tell somebody something, but until they actually do it, they won't believe that they can do it. So what was really important about this game was, not only that we won, but how we won, where we came back from a 10-0 deficit and when the game was on the line, the guys rose. Every other week prior to this, the guys have shut down.

"We've had a try scored on us the last play of the game in every game we've played so far. And this time, instead of that, we scored near the end and we rose. It was great to see the guys get that Eye of the Tiger at the end of the game instead of shutting it down."

A pair of first half tries gave Mohawk a 10-0 advantage at half time and it looked like they were going to add to their total 10 minutes in to the second half.

But the Bruin defence held them off and after winning possession back, Brett King took the ball 30 yards from the Sheridan goal line, broke a pair of tackles - first to sift loose from the pack and second at midfield - before dashing towards the tryline, cutting their deficit in half.

Mohawk would drive back down the field and scored another unconverted try to restore their 10 point margin, 15-5.

The Double-Blue would not relent though and found themselves back in scoring territory again and this time Nujan Keshavarz - along with some helping hands - was able to touch it down under the posts, where Brandon Campbell converted the kick to cut the deficit to 15-12.

With time winding down, Mohawk was awarded a penalty 25-yards from goal and attempted the penalty kick, but missed.

It proved to be costly as a rejuvenated Sheridan squad drove the ball down the field and got the ball over the line, but were unable to get it to ground.

Sheridan won the ensuing scrum from the 5-metre mark though and the ball was swung to James Shanley who powered his way through a pair of tacklers to score the try.

Campbell added the convert for good measure and with two minutes still on the clock, the Bruins held on and kept Mohawk from responding.

They now have nearly a week and a half off before travelling to Conestoga on October 14.

Moniz says that while the club has certainly made some big strides in their first season, there is still plenty of room to build on the foundation they've created.

"What we need to work on more is working more as a team. In other words, forwards and backs together," he said. "We've just started to work on that, but if we're going to have more success we need to have forwards and backs working together so each unit understands the other and so that the seam between forwards and backs becomes non-existent. As well, we just need to keep the basics going. It's a game of basics, no matter what level you play at. The team that has the better basics on a given day will have success."

Source: Sheridan I.T.