Tough haul for Burns Demeyere AE bantams
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At the beginning of the 2012-13 season, the Tillsonburg Burns Demeyere AE bantam hockey team had to make a tough decision.
“Right from the get-go we only had two Southern Counties (AE) teams, other than ourselves,” said Burns Demeyere coach Duane Nevill. “It was Caledonia, Tavistock and us.”
There would be no Southern Counties AE bantam league, and that left the Tornadoes only three choices – Southern Counties local league… Southern Counties bantam rep league… or the Shamrock AE bantam league.
“So we chose to be in the Shamrock league. And it’s been a very tough division,” said Nevill. “It’s been very tough.”
Caledonia went to a Niagara-area league and Tavistock moved up to the SC rep league. The Burns Demeyere AEs boldly went where few TMHI teams have ever gone.
“We knew the Shamrock league would be tough. But not this… difficult. They’ve got really big centres and a lot of people to choose from. We haven’t won a game yet, that’s how tough it is.
“We had to make the decision and we had very little time to apply – it was like we had to decide ‘now.’ So we sat down with the parents in a meeting.
“The kids are better than house league. The kids didn’t want it, the parents didn’t want it.
“If we went to the (SC) rep side, would it have been a little easier?” Nevill wondered with a shrug. “Who knows? We don’t know that.”
Shamrock agreed to adjust their league to accommodate the Tornadoes.
“We didn’t play Mooretown or Petrolia – that’s almost a two-hour drive. And they didn’t want to come here, so they fixed the (13-team) schedule.”
Some games were close, he said, and the Tornadoes have notably improved. Shamrock teams that won 10-0 were only winning 5-0 later in the season.
“The kids are holding up probably better than I expected. They’re trying to keep their heads up… and we have improved quite a bit since the beginning of the year, playing together, and that’s all we can expect from anyone. The kids have really improved and they never give up.”
Tillsonburg did play Shamrock’s Petrolia in the TMHI Bob Tansley Memorial Tournament, and won on home ice.
The Tornadoes, who were swept by Caledonia in OMHA playdowns, now have two playoff games against Lambeth this weekend. They need to win at least one to extend the best-of-five playoff series after Lambeth won the best-of-five playoff opener 4-1 in Tillsonburg Wednesday night.
“It was a close game – could have gone either way. We made a couple mistakes and they capitalized on them.
“We had some good opportunities,” he said, noting in particular a late power play with 4:23 left to play, trailing 3-1. “If we could have got that second goal we might have got the chance to pull the goalie and tie the game up. We just couldn’t put it home.”
If Tillsonburg loses the next two, however, it’s unknown what happens next, league-wise. Nevill is not sure whether they’re ‘done’ or if they move on to a consolation round.
“I think we’d be done, and that would be tough to swallow being done in February. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Whatever the outcome of Shamrock playoffs, the Burns Demeyere AEs can look forward to a season-ending tournament coming up in Aylmer in March.
The Burns Demeyere roster includes: Brayden Brankley, Andrew Hamm, Dawson Descamps, Avery Jensen, Bryce Evans, Mitchell Wass, Christian Yallop, Seth Robinson, Justin Levinson, Ethan Scruton, Allen Howey, Ian Ploss, Brandon Nevill, Adam Horvath, Colton Barkhouse, William Sturch, and Tyler Stevens.
Game 1
Lambeth 4, Burns Demeyere 1
Tillsonburg scoring: 1. Seth Robinson (Christian Yallop).