Gryphons do enough to get into Baggataway Cup tourney
GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons will go into this weekend’s CUFLA Baggataway Cup championship tournaments in a bit of a different position.
The Gryphs will be spectators Friday during the opening day of the three-day tournament and will join the action Saturday.
“That’s something new for us. That’s something that we’re not used to, for sure,” Gryphon coach Sam Kosakowski said. “It’s a little different path for us. It gives us a little bit of rest, which is good. It gives us a chance to watch some of the other games and go in there a little bit more rested, a little bit more relaxed and a little bit more focused, maybe, because our game prep is a little bit different moving in. Let’s try something new. We won it a few times going the long route, we had a good run at it last year going the long route. Well this year we’ll go the short route and see what happens.”
Guelph Gryphons 8 Laurier Golden Hawks 4
The locals will get Friday off thanks to finishing first in the West Division.
An 8-4 victory over the Laurier Golden Hawks Sunday at the Gryphon Soccer Complex gave the Gryphs their berth in the six-team championship tournament at Trent University in Peterborough.
“It’s a win and it serves the purpose to get to the Baggataway Cup,” Kosakowski said. “It points us in the direction — why was it 8-4? Why wasn’t it better? We have a few things to examine which gives us an opportunity to get ready for next week. Mentally, we weren’t prepared for this game. A lot of guys understand that.”
The Gryphs led 4-1 at the end of the first quarter, 4-2 at halftime and 6-3 after the third quarter. Laurier cut the gap to a pair of goals early in the fourth quarter before the hosts secured the win with two goals in the final three minutes.
“On some level, you don’t want to come through this game and pump them and not have anything to work for,” Kosakowski said. “You’re going to the Baggataway and that’s important, but you want to still be able to work on stuff and our mental preparation for games is one of those things we need to work on.”
Nicholas Volkov and Bryce Dennis scored three goals apiece for the Gryphs while Ben Doherty and Robert Baxter added single goals. Jabe Verbeek had two assists while Volkov, Gacin Thibeault and Kiam Aston had one apiece.
Liam Foran, Sam Dramnitzke, Ben Penny-Perreault and Matthew Darroch collected single goals for Laurier while Foran and Zack Gurd each had an assist.
While the Gryphs came out with the victory in the tournament play-in game, they know they’ll have to play better in Peterborough.
“If we come out and make some of the mistakes that we made today, we’ll be in tough,” Kosakowski said. “I don’t think we were confident today. We just weren’t 100 percent there and it showed making plays that we don’t normally make — forcing the ball in situations and doing some stuff. That stuff’s got to be cleaned up. You can’t get away with that stuff next weekend. And Laurier made us pay for it today. Simple.”
The Gryphs will play the winner of a Friday quarter-final between the Brock Badgers and Bishop’s Gaiters in the semifinals Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
“We’ve got to look at some Bishop’s game film in the eventuality that they win,” Kosakowski said. “Brock, we have a pretty good idea and they have a pretty good idea of what we look like. If it’s a Brock-Guelph semi, it’ll be a hell of a game and it’ll be two teams that know each other and it’ll just be a battle.
“Bishop’s is a good team. I think we’re going to spend a little bit more of our time thinking about Bishop’s because we haven’t seen them, but there’s some basic stuff that we need to tighten up on our end. It doesn’t matter who we play, we’ve got to be ready.”
The other semifinal will feature the host Trent Excalibur against either the McGill Redbirds or Western Mustangs.
Semifinal winners are to meet in Sunday’s final set for 2 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal
Gryphons do enough to get into Baggataway Cup tourney
GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons will go into this weekend’s CUFLA Baggataway Cup championship tournaments in a bit of a different position.
The Gryphs will be spectators Friday during the opening day of the three-day tournament and will join the action Saturday.
“That’s something new for us. That’s something that we’re not used to, for sure,” Gryphon coach Sam Kosakowski said. “It’s a little different path for us. It gives us a little bit of rest, which is good. It gives us a chance to watch some of the other games and go in there a little bit more rested, a little bit more relaxed and a little bit more focused, maybe, because our game prep is a little bit different moving in. Let’s try something new. We won it a few times going the long route, we had a good run at it last year going the long route. Well this year we’ll go the short route and see what happens.”
Guelph Gryphons 8
Laurier Golden Hawks 4
The locals will get Friday off thanks to finishing first in the West Division.
An 8-4 victory over the Laurier Golden Hawks Sunday at the Gryphon Soccer Complex gave the Gryphs their berth in the six-team championship tournament at Trent University in Peterborough.
“It’s a win and it serves the purpose to get to the Baggataway Cup,” Kosakowski said. “It points us in the direction — why was it 8-4? Why wasn’t it better? We have a few things to examine which gives us an opportunity to get ready for next week. Mentally, we weren’t prepared for this game. A lot of guys understand that.”
The Gryphs led 4-1 at the end of the first quarter, 4-2 at halftime and 6-3 after the third quarter. Laurier cut the gap to a pair of goals early in the fourth quarter before the hosts secured the win with two goals in the final three minutes.
“On some level, you don’t want to come through this game and pump them and not have anything to work for,” Kosakowski said. “You’re going to the Baggataway and that’s important, but you want to still be able to work on stuff and our mental preparation for games is one of those things we need to work on.”
Nicholas Volkov and Bryce Dennis scored three goals apiece for the Gryphs while Ben Doherty and Robert Baxter added single goals. Jabe Verbeek had two assists while Volkov, Gacin Thibeault and Kiam Aston had one apiece.
Liam Foran, Sam Dramnitzke, Ben Penny-Perreault and Matthew Darroch collected single goals for Laurier while Foran and Zack Gurd each had an assist.
While the Gryphs came out with the victory in the tournament play-in game, they know they’ll have to play better in Peterborough.
“If we come out and make some of the mistakes that we made today, we’ll be in tough,” Kosakowski said. “I don’t think we were confident today. We just weren’t 100 percent there and it showed making plays that we don’t normally make — forcing the ball in situations and doing some stuff. That stuff’s got to be cleaned up. You can’t get away with that stuff next weekend. And Laurier made us pay for it today. Simple.”
The Gryphs will play the winner of a Friday quarter-final between the Brock Badgers and Bishop’s Gaiters in the semifinals Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
“We’ve got to look at some Bishop’s game film in the eventuality that they win,” Kosakowski said. “Brock, we have a pretty good idea and they have a pretty good idea of what we look like. If it’s a Brock-Guelph semi, it’ll be a hell of a game and it’ll be two teams that know each other and it’ll just be a battle.
“Bishop’s is a good team. I think we’re going to spend a little bit more of our time thinking about Bishop’s because we haven’t seen them, but there’s some basic stuff that we need to tighten up on our end. It doesn’t matter who we play, we’ve got to be ready.”
The other semifinal will feature the host Trent Excalibur against either the McGill Redbirds or Western Mustangs.
Semifinal winners are to meet in Sunday’s final set for 2 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal