U18 rugby finals Championship trophies are on the line tonight for the men’s and women’s U18 teams at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club. Kickoff times are 7 p.m. at Ellerslie Rugby Park for the SARFC men (2-3) against Druids Red (4-0) and the SARFC women (7-0) against the Nor’Westers (7-1) or Druids/Leduc (5-2-1). The winners of the Edmonton Rugby Union finals advance to provincials Saturday against the Calgary Rugby Union reps. Game times are noon for the women and 2 p.m. for the men at Ellerslie. Last year the SARFC women finished 6-1 as the ERU champions and provincial finalists. Rugby medallists Medals were awarded to seven St. Albert Rugby Football Club junior players with Alberta Wolf Pack teams at the Canadian Rugby Championships in Calgary. In Sunday’s playoffs, the gold medallists were Payton McNeill and Alexie Pusch in U18 women, Kyle Dolph in U18 men and Colten Brenneis in U16 men and the bronze medallists were Mackenzie Hamm, Kiana Krueger and Shelby Pierce in U16 women. The U18 women’s final was 43-10 against the Nova Scotia Keltics as Alberta finished 4-0 at nationals. Pusch scored multiple tries in the tournament and along with McNeill led by example for the U18 champions. The U18 men’s final was 29-26 over B.C., last year’s champion, as Alberta ended nationals at 3-1. The U16 men’s final was 34-29 over B.C. No. 1 as Brenneis scored one of the team’s six tries in the fifth win for Alberta after losing the tournament opener 38-5 to the B.C. squad. The U16 women toppled the Keltics 60-7 for bronze. Alberta’s lone loss in five matches was 22-7 in overtime to the Ontario Blues, the eventual gold medallists. In the first four matches, Pierce scored three times and Hamm had one try. Krueger also shared captaincy duties for the team. Junior B hockey The St. Albert Merchants and Morinville Jets have finalized their preseason schedules in the Capital Junior B Hockey League. The Merchants play exhibitions Sept. 8 against the host Sherwood Park Knights at 8:15 p.m., Sept. 11 against the Edmonton Royals at 8 p.m. at Confederation Arena and Sept. 17 against the Knights at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena. The Jets have a weekend tournament on tap at Ray McDonald Sports Centre and game times 8:45 p.m. Sept. 8 against the Strathcona Bruins, 8:30 p.m. Sept. 9 against the Edmonton Mustangs and 7:15 p.m. Sept. 10 against the Stony Plain Flyers. The Sept. 22 league opener between the Jets and Merchants is 8 p.m. at the Akinsdale rink. U13 westerns The St. Albert Cardinals dropped four games at the U13 peewee AAA westerns in Spruce Grove. The third-place finishers at the Baseball Alberta Tier I championship suffered losses of 9-3 to the Sask Five Giants, 7-6 to the Camrose Cougars, 23-20 to North Winnipeg and 15-14 in eight innings to Carillon. Jose Nunez, a pickup from Sherwood Park, struck-out 13 Giants, including the first eight batters he faced. Camrose, the provincial silver medallist, rallied from a 6-0 deficit despite a strong pitching performance by Logan Kowaluk. The two losses eliminated the Cardinals from the top four positions in the eight-team tournament and the last two games were spent giving the players equal playing time while also letting them experiment playing different positions. U15 westerns The St. Albert Cardinals returned home from the U15 bantam AAA westerns in Kamloops with one win in five games. The Baseball Alberta Tier I silver medallists started off with losses of 4-1 to the Kamloops River Dogs and 22-9 to the Victoria Eagles before defeating the Saskatoon A’s 5-2. The Cardinals closed out the tournament with setbacks of 5-3 to the North Winnipeg Pirates and 9-2 to the Saskatoon Blue Jays.
