Trailing after the opening quarter for the first time all season, Brendan Farrell and Jake Davis’ thoughts drifted back to those countless winter runs with their St. Michaels College School field lacrosse teammates.
With those recollections came confidence.
After all, the Blue Gaels — and their two standout Milton seniors — had put in far too many miles not to believe they didn’t have another gear left for when it was needed most.
“We started running back in January, three or four months before the season even started, so by the spring we were already in mid-season form. That (high fitness level) was a huge advantage for us all year,” said Davis, on the heels of an OFSAA AAA/AAAA gold medal triumph earlier this month in Toronto. “We hadn’t been behind early before, but we knew if we just kept working hard we had the conditioning and depth to turn it around.”
Good guess.
Actually, it was more akin to astute observation, given how the local duo and their Blue Gaels had outlasted most of its opponents this spring — compiling a 23-3 record prior to the battle for provincial high school supremacy.
Said St. Michaels coach Alex Frescura, “These guys had the fitness level to run teams into the ground. We’d sometimes have a lull in the middle of a game, but we were able to pour it on and finish strong.”
That was certainly the case in their season finale, with the Blue Gaels unloading with seven unanswered goals in the third quarter en route to vanquishing Oshawa’s Paul Dwyer Catholic High School 11-7 and capturing their first-ever Ontario championship.
“It felt great to finish off my senior year on a big note like that,” said Farrell.
To say St. Michaels’ Milton duo factored heavily into the title win would be something of an understatement.
Offering one final display of his tremendous versatility on the field, Farrell was moved up to attack — filling in for an unavailable starter — and helped put the game away with the last goal. Along with that top-shelf clincher, the St. Michaels’ co-captain had an assist and delivered some impressive playmaking.
“It was a big change to make (for a championship game), but I think I adapt well,” noted Farrell, who had six goals overall at OFSAA and played pretty much every position possible — including running with the long pole on defence — over the last two years.
Equally instrumental to St. Michaels’ success, face-off specialist Davis was practically unbeatable through the late stages of the season and won just about every key draw against Paul Dwyer.
This served as a huge catalyst for the Blue Gaels’ turnaround, which he further fueled with a pair of assists.
Of course his face-off prowess wasn’t the only thing that garnered him co-MVP honours for the championship game.
“Jake plays with a real toughness. He had a lot of big hits and got to a lot of loose balls for us,” said Frescura, whose team went into OFSAA with a huge boost, having beaten long-time rival St. Andrew’s in the league finals. “Both Jake and Brendan were a huge part of this win.”
Ranked second for the 12-team provincial tournament, the Blue Gaels went 4-0 over the two days and knocked off Burlington’s Notre Dame in the semifinals — persevering through a few anxious moments in the second half after jumping out to a 6-1 lead.
Farrell scored twice in that one, while he and Davis delivered formidable overall efforts to help put St. Michaels in the championship.
Both sporting extensive field and box lacrosse experience, the OFSAA champs are taking their games to the university level this coming fall.
Davis just signed with Division 3’s St. Lawrence in New York, while Farrell heads west this fall to compete with B.C.’s Simon Fraser.
