A champs: Mustangs
The winners of the 20th Annual Finch Youth Broomball Tournament held in Finch over the weekend of Jan. 10-12, were the Russell Mustangs. The Mustangs defeated the Russell Big Dogs in the A final 1-0 in overtime to claim the title. The winning team members are: not in order, Liam Brown, Annabelle Campbell, Carson Garrod, Jack Janes, Noah Reid, Analiesa Reid, Phillippe Clemont, Kristen Currie, Darren McCord, Benjamin Dellah, Mathieu Fortin, Ryder L’Ecuyer and Frank Fortin. The team manager is Al Reid. Moore photo

FINCH—The Finch Youth Broomball League hosted their 20th Annual Broomball Tournament at the Finch Community Arena over the weekend of Jan. 10-12. The tournament featured 20 teams from the area and one team from Quebec with ages ranging from 4 to 15 years old.

Teams participating were from Finch, Russell and Vankleek Hill. Teams from Finch included the Finch Squirts, the U12 Pythons, Eagles and Moose and the U16 Panthers, Cougars, Wildcats and Tigers. Teams from Russell were the Russell Sprouts, U12 Whip Shots, Titans and Ice Dogs and the U16 Ice Breakers, Gold Diggers, Mustangs and Big Dogs. From Vankleek Hill it was the Vankleek Hill Squirts and the U12 Rockets and the one team from Quebec was the U12 Sonic de le Vallée.

The tournament organizer, Cynthia Daoust, said there were between 700-1,000 spectators and participants during the weekend. 

The Juvenile Warriors set up a brunch on Saturday raising funds for their participation in the 2020 Juvenile National Broomball Tournament to be held in Cornwall this upcoming March.

The Squirts all received participation medals at the end of the tournament which left many with smiles on their faces.

In the U12 gold medal game the Russell Whip Shots took on the Russell Titans. The Whip Shots scored with just 1:29 remaining in the first period as Tobie Taillefer-Richer scored from Camille Leclair for the lone goal of the game. The Whip Shots took home the gold medal with a 1-0 victory and the Titans took home the silver.

In the U16 division, the Finch Panthers took on the Finch Cougars in the C final. The Cougars opened the scoring with a goal with just 51 seconds remaining in the opening period as Chase Dingwall scored with the assist going to Gregory Harps but the Panthers tied the game with 22 seconds remaining as Hugo Lafontaine scored an unassisted goal. The Cougars retook the lead with 6:19 remaining in the second period as Pascal Dumont scored from Harps and hung on for a 2-1 victory winning the C title.

The U16 B championship featured the Russell Ice Breakers against the Russell Gold Diggers. The Gold Diggers jumped out to an early 1-0 lead at 8:43 as Simon Gagne scored from Jordyn Burnett and made it 2-0 at 9:34 as David Corbin scored unassisted. The Gold Diggers made it 3-0 just 1:43 into the second period as Burnet scored from Connor Toonen-Godda but the Ice Breakers got on the scoresheet at 4:49 as Joey Leblanc scored an unassisted goal. The Gold Diggers added two more goals at 6:51 as Grace Henry scored from Gagne and Burnet and at 10:50 as Corbin scored his second of the game from Brody Henry and Grace Henry. The Gold Diggers took the game 5-1 securing the B championship.

In the A finals of the U16 division, the Russell Big Dogs took on the Russell Mustangs. The teams went through the two periods scoreless, so the game headed to a four-on-four with no goalies for a sudden victory. Just 2:27 into the overtime frame, the Mustangs ended it as Mathieu Fortin became the hero unassisted. The Mustangs took the A championship with a 1-0 victory.