Tiger-Cats need better start, The Rock starts Saturday, start thinking 2026, and other weekly sports 1-offs | TheSpec.com

2022-06-04 02:32:18 By : Mr. Jack Wong

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Even things that go without saying sometimes need saying so we’ll say that the Tiger-Cats can’t start Sunday’s Grey Cup play-in game in Toronto playing the way they did the first 20 minutes against Montreal. The Ticats went on to win, riding some superb defensive plays, a great kicking game and a couple of precise offensive strikes, but if they let the Argos’ offence and quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson get any kind of self-confident head of steam, they’ll have more trouble than the Als gave them. Over the last 70 minutes of play between these two teams, Toronto has outscored Hamilton 50-22. Big plays win big games, but you can’t always count on those big plays, and the Ticats need to set a physical tone from the outset and get the Argo defence off the field more quickly and more often than they did to open in last Sunday’s game. And the offence has to stay out there longer, with much more sustained production.

Free shuttle ride from GO for Rock lacrosse fans

Hamilton native Jamison Dilks is one of four rookies to crack the active roster as The Rock begins its new National Lacrosse League tenure in Hamilton Saturday night (7 p.m.) against the Albany FireWolves at FirstOntario Centre. Although the Hamilton Bengals grad played two games on defence in 2019-20, NLL rules say any player with fewer than three games qualifies as a rookie of the year candidate.

The Rock and HSR are combining to provide a free shuttle bus service, called the Rock City Express, from the West Harbour GO station to the arena for every home game, starting Saturday. Lacrosse fans arriving on the 5:03, 6:03 or 7:03 p.m. trains of the Lakeshore West line just have to show their game ticket to ride the non-stop shuttle to the corner of York Blvd. and Park St. N. The shuttle leaves the same corner after the game for the 10:13 p.m. eastbound GO train. Game tickets are available at ticketmaster.ca or torontorock.com.

Next men up stepped up

Not overlooked, but certainly publicly undermentioned after the Ticats 23-12 East semifinal victory over Montreal was a decision made by the football coaching and management staff 90 minutes before the game to move safety Tunde Adeleke to field side halfback and insert rookie Stavros Katsantonis at safety. Regular starting halfback Ciante Evans hurt his quad during practice late in the week and it wasn’t certain until game day morning that he wouldn’t be ready. There were other trickier, hybrid rotations the Ticats could have employed but they chose to go with straight-up substitutions and it worked. Although there was the occasional miscue, both Canadians came up with huge games: Katsantonis, then Adeleke, made the plays on the second and third down incomplete passes which ended Montreal’s last hope from the Hamilton nine-yard line, Katsantonis had a huge interception and Adeleke had 10 tackles. Evans will likely be back in uniform for Sunday’s East final.

Two teams, two big games, two locations

It’s a tough geographic split Sunday for the Tiger-Cats organization, but one they’re glad to have. Their football team is in Toronto for a 12:30 p.m. kickoff against the Argos, with the winner advancing to the Grey Cup in Hamilton. Their soccer team is at Tim Hortons Field for a 4:30 p.m. kickoff against Pacific FC of Victoria, with the winner claiming the North Star Shield, as Canadian Premier League champions. The two corporate siblings were actually much farther apart when the Forge won its first of two CPL titles on the afternoon of Nov. 2, 2019 with a 1-0 second-leg win in Calgary. That evening the Ticats used a substitute-heavy lineup to beat the Argos at Tim Hortons Field and clinch an undefeated regular season at home.

The contrasts of late-year international soccer

When Forge FC practised at Tim Hortons Field Sunday night before heading to the airport, it was snowing, windy and about 0 degrees. When they arrived a few hours later in Tegucigalpa, Honduras where they’ll play the second leg of the CONCACAF League semifinal Wednesday night, it was about 25 degrees.

It’s too bad that hoops fans were restricted by pandemic indoor restrictions because the Cathedral Gaels just completed a season for the ages, with the school’s first provincial AAA girls basketball championship. The Gaels hammered Brantford CI Mustangs 80-23 in Friday’s final in St. Catharines.

Smithville Christian Academy, the host team, won the OFSAA A girls title 43-24 over Belleville Nicholson.

Canada-USA at Tim Hortons Field

One of the far-reaching effects of Tim Hortons Field playing host to the Canada-USA 2022 World Cup qualifying game Jan. 30 could involve the 2026 men’s World Cup. The reasons for Hamilton being the home site are rooted primarily in geographic location (shorter travel from Canadian games in Central American just before and after Jan. 30), and the field surface. But the Canada-US game, combined with the amount of international soccer played here, particularly this season, could really help Hamilton become a secondary site — for example, hosting one of the non-Canadian teams’ training base — if Toronto is chosen as one of the sites for the USA-Mexico-Canada World Cup in 2026. The amenities of the building, its recent and excellent soccer history, and the proximity to three airports all play in favour of some kind of 2026 involvement here.

Can’t let more time pass without mentioning Paula Schnurr’s McMaster men’s cross-country team, which won the bronze medal at the U Sport championships in Quebec City. Mac’s Andrew Davies finished fourth overall and was named a first-team all-Canadian, while Max Turek was 10th overall and named to the second All-Canada team.

Summer league making winter news

It’s the off-season for the Honey Badgers and the spring-summer CEBL, but you’d never know it. The Badgers’ Cody John has been picked up by league champions Edmonton Stingers who will represent the CEBL in the Basketball Champions League of the Americas. There are 12 teams from seven countries, and Edmonton travels to Nicaragua for the first round of pool play on Dec. 13. The Badgers started their 2022 season’s ticket drive this week and the CEBL also added a 10th team. The Newfoundland Growlers will play in St. John’s with former Hamilton Bulldogs president Glenn Stanford a key part of the local operations group.

The Hamilton Bulldogs are on another nice little run, with four wins and a shootout loss in their last five games. After visiting Barrie Thursday night, they’re home to North Bay on Friday (7 p.m.) and Erie on Sunday (2 p.m.) as part of an insanely busy Hamilton sports weekend … the Dogs’ Marco Costantini, at 2.98, is one of only six OHL goalies with at least 10 games and a goals-against average under three, while Jan Mysak has 15 goals and 28 points in 19 games and Logan Morrison has 27 points … great to see all the local, and interesting, content on Sportsnet’s Hometown Hockey broadcast from Grimsby Monday night with lots of time spent with Bulldog’s GM Steve Staios and with Christina Putigna, who played for Stoney Creek Sabres at the start of her PWHL career, and has scored three times in six games this year and taken a whopping 29 shots for Boston Pride of the Premier Hockey Federation (formerly the NWHL). Kevin Bieksa, who played Jr. A in Burlington and Jr. B in Stoney Creek and is an entertaining, incisive Sportsnet hockey analyst, returned to his hometown for the weekend event … Caledonia’s Cam Talbot, the former Hamilton Red Wing, has won three straight games for the Minnesota Wild, during which he posted a .951 save percentage.

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