Oshawa’s Durham College sweep men’s and women’s provincial rugby championships
Published November 7, 2022 at 12:43 pm
Durham College Lords swept the gold medals at the OCAA rugby championships and both the men’s and women’s squads did it in style, capping perfect seasons.
The men’s team got to celebrate at home, as Thompson Rugby Park played host to Ontario’s best. After finishing the regular season at 4-0, the Lords earned a bye into the semi-final where they trounced Oakville’s Sheridan Bruins 52-8.
In the gold medal match the Lords were paced by a pair of tries from Josh Dusome, the accurate boot of Tyler Janes and a gritty try line stand in the first half to fend off the challenge from Barrie’s Georgian Grizzlies, winning 31-17.
The championship is the third for the men’s team since they joined the league in 2018. They earned a bronze last season.
On the women’s side, the Durham College team won their first ever gold medal in the Rugby 7s Ontario championships, held at St. Lawrence College in Belleville.
OCAA MVP Shay Norris, Durham College
The Lords, who finished the regular season at 18-0, got a bye into the semi-final match where they blanked the Seneca Sting 17-0 to clinch a spot in their third consecutive gold medal game.
After two straight silvers, tries by Heather Bews, Maya Austin and Emily Cooper put Durham up 17-0 at the half against Fleming College to send them well on their way to changing the medal colour to gold.
Fleming scored the only try of the second half, missing on the conversion to make it 17-5 and the Lords held the Knights off until the end to win the coveted gold.
Durham College’s Shay Morris (Ajax) was named Women’s Rugby Sevens Player of the Year in the OCAA at a ceremony held the Friday night before the championships. The second-year back was the OCAA Scoring Champion scoring 22 tries while adding 31 converts for 172 points, eight points shy of an OCAA single season record.
Teammate Cooper was honoured as the OCAA Rookie of the Year. The back was second behind Morris in league scoring, setting a new OCAA single season record with 34 tries. The exploits of Morris and Cooper helped Durham establish a new OCAA single season record of 578 total points scored.
Donnie Maillet of Fleming College was named OCAA Coach of the Year.
