The Ripley Tween team traveled to Elora-Fergus on Nov. 17 to participate in their 16th annual Ringette tournament. The Rascals stepped up to the plate and accepted the challenge of playing in the “B” division for this tournament. The team displayed their talents and was quite competitive at this level in all three games played.
In their first game early Saturday morning the Rascals met St, Mary’s. Ripley’s Kerri Brown opened the scoring late in the first half on a pass from Kaitlyn Threndyle and Whitney Neilipovitz. This lead lasted until the last 28 seconds of the period when St. Mary’s slipped the ring past Stewart Clifford. However, Julianne Clifford gave Ripley the lead once again before the buzzer ended the first half. Assisting in this important goal were Alex Gurbin and Laura Bowers. St. Mary’s tied the score again early in the second half adding tension to both benches. Julianne Clifford put Ripley out of reach when she tallied 2 more goals on passes from Abbey Gibson, Cayly Bellan and Lisa Coulter. Stewart Clifford made many outstanding saves throughout the game.
At noon the Ripley squad were challenged by Waterloo, the favourite going into the tournament. Once again the Ripley team showed their stamina and desire to play as the ring moved from end to end, keeping the fans on their toes. It wasn’t until the last two minutes of the first half that Julianne Clifford found the Waterloo net on a flip shot. Setting this goal up were Meighan Clifford and Sam Wendorf. Ten seconds later Waterloo tied the score and the period ended in a deadlock. Early in the second period Waterloo took the lead, but Julianne Clifford picked up a rebound from Cayly Bellan and found the mark. The game continued with close checking, hard skating and numerous shots on net from both teams. Waterloo scored the go ahead goal with three minutes left in the game. The Ripley Rascals worked hard as a team, setting up many chances at the net, but could not score. The game ended 4-2 in Waterloo’s favour.
The last game of the round robin play was against Guelph. Once again this was a well matched game with end to end action. Julianne Clifford opened the scoring for Ripley on a lead pass from Abbey Gibson and Kerri Brown. Two minutes later Guelph answered with a goal of their own. The see saw match continued as Kerri Brown tallied on a pass from Cayly Bellan and Lisa Coulter only to find Guelph tying the score again. Ripley jumped out in the lead when Meighan Clifford brought the ring out of Ripley’s end, passed it to Whitney Neilipovitz at centre ice, who then dumped it into Guelph’s end where Kerri Brown picked it up and fired it into Guelph’s net. However, before the period ended Guelph had the score tied again. The score remained a 3-3 tie throughout most of the second period. Stewart Clifford made some amazing savings for Ripley, the forwards had numerous chances to score at the Guelph end and everyone skated and checked with a vengeance. In the end, with less that 2 minutes left in the game Guelph found the mark twice to claim the game 5-3.
The Ripley Rascals are to be commended on their hard work, sportsmanship, team play and skills shown throughout the day. They proved to be very competitive at the “B” level of play.