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Wednesday, October 4, 2006 · Page 19 Essex hosts 28th Annual Early Bird Tournament The weekend is over, the signs are down and the arena is quiet. This weekend Essex Minor Hockey welcomed 16 teams to town to play in our annual Early Bird Tournament. It was a great weekend where we got to see the arena full of smiling kids having FUN !! Many volunteers spent the weekend at the arena. Thank you to EMHA board members Matt Shepley, Tars Morassut and Wes Lambier who found the need to spend the weekend helping out and making it run smoothly. It could not have happened without their support. A special thanks to Justin Snelgrove, all the Essex Ravens Novice, Atom and Pee Wee parents who supported the tournament and all the Essex referees, clock kids and the Kinsmen Canteen that were present all weekend. The tournament included 33 games. From the opening face-off on Thursday night to the final puck-drop on Sunday night there was always great action in the arena. We hosted teams from Oshawa, Grimsby, London, Windsor, Southpoint, Riverside, Belle River, Amherstburg and LaSalle. The finals on Sunday had a lot of great action on the rink with some great teams facing off against each other. We had Windsor against Grimsby in the Novice finals, Southpoint against Windsor in the Atom finals and, at the end of the tournament, we had LaSalle taking on London for the PeeWee finals. Each one of the final games put the fans on the edge of their seats. They were all great games with all the kids working hard to take home the championship cup. There were some great goals but also a lot of beautiful saves by the goalies. Finalist plaques were handed out to Grimsby, Windsor and London who should be proud of the effort they put into the games they played on the weekend. The 28th Annual Early Bird Tournament proudly presented the Windsor Novice Majors, Southpoint Atom Majors and LaSalle PeeWee Majors with the Champions Cup. Good luck to all in future games this season and see you at the rink next year for the 29th Annual Essex Early Bird. Atom A Forest Machine This past weekend EMHA hosted its annual early bird hockey tournament. Our first game on Thursday saw us beat our local rivals Belle River in a close 4-2 game. On Friday the boys lost a battle to Windsor and, although the score was 6-2, it was a hard fought contest. Saturday evening the boys faced Oshawa and beat them 2-0 after an excellent showing in the skills competition that afternoon. All the boys played well and, with the victory, they earned a trip to the semi-finals on Sunday ending in a tough loss 6-2 to Windsor. For such a small town to be able to compete with likes of Oshawa and Windsor is a real achievement. The coaches and players should be proud of what they accomplished this past weekend. Mitch `Huddy' rose to the occasion throughout the tournament in stellar fashion to the delight of the home town fans. Way to go kid! My apology to my son David for missing his goal but the boys told me it was a zinger..... Way to go Essex! TAKEN DOWN ­ Essex Red Raiders running back A.J. Langlois, No. 18, is taken down by a group of Assumption Purple Raiders defenders during a senior boys' football game at Raider Field Sept. 28. Essex dominated the game, beating Assumption 34-8 and bringing the Red Raiders' record to 1 win and 1 loss. take a 4-2 lead into the second. The second period saw good end-to-end action but no scoring. In the third, the boys decided to try and do everything individually. They quit passing and took five penalties in a row, which resulted in a 6-5 loss. Goal scoring went to Ty Queen (2G, 1A), Tony Spidalieri (1G, 1A), Alec Shuttleworth (1G, 1A), Ryan Morris (1G) and Chad Hedrick (2A). On Saturday, we played in Amherstburg. The first period saw no scoring on either side. In the second, the penalties started and never stopped the whole game, which resulted in a 52 loss. FALL IS COMING! LE YOUR VEHIC HAVE INSPECTED COOLING HES SYSTEM FLUS Pee Wee A Tim Hortons The 28th annual early bird tournament held in Essex this past weekend put us at home all weekend playing in the tournament. Our first game was late Friday night against a team from London. The new rules put both teams in the penalty box for most of the night. London scored four power play goals in the first two periods. With just over a minute left in the second we cored a great short-handed oal but the boys had troule staying out of the penaly box in the third, which llowed London to put one ore past our goalie. We showed up at the rena the next morning eady to play a tough game gainst LaSalle. We started ut a little slow falling down y four goals. With only 14 econds left on the clock, we ut the puck in the back of he net on a breakaway. lthough we worked hard he rest of the game we had o luck getting a win. We faced Amherstburg or the third game of the eekend. We put one in the back of the net each period but came up short with Amherstburg taking advantage of the penalties. Without any luck in getting a win in the round robin it left us playing LaSalle late Sunday morning. The boys came out skating hard and moving the puck around very well. They played awesome hockey during the second period, keeping the scoreboard the same until the end of the second when LaSalle squeaked one in our net putting us down by two. Playing shorthanded for most of the third allowed LaSalle to put a couple more in leaving us without the win needed to sneak into the championship game. The boys should be proud of the effort and improvement each of them made this weekend and carry that on to the next game. We are in Riverside Saturday night and in Essex on Sunday at 6:45 p.m. Come out and support your Essex Ravens PeeWee's. Bantam A Essex Source for Sports The boys traveled to Riverside on Friday and started out fast, scoring four goals in the first period to 519-726-5804 13121 Walker Rd., McGregor, ON. AUTO & DIESEL REPAIRS