Tigers set to growl

The midget espoir Lac St. Louis Tigers will host the Etoiles de L’Est at noon in their home opener. Forward Matthew Bissonette, a Beaconsfield resident who played bantam AA last season for the Lakeshore Panthers, has been named Tigers captain while Pointe Claire’s Eric Pellerin-Therin, Ile Bizard’s Kevin Bachand and Kirkland’s Matthew Batty will serve as alternate captains.

“Our team will have strong leadership qualities,” said Tigers general manager Chris Sides. “Matthew (Bissonette) has been to the provincial finals on two occasions, reached the semifinals last season. He knows what it takes to compete day in and day out and we expect that kind of leadership will be called upon this season with the recent changes to the season and the new play-off format.”

An interesting sidelight to the Tigers’ season will see them play an exhibition game on Oct. 5 at McConnell Arena against the defending Quebec university women’s champion McGill Martlets.

Successful weekend for Lions

The Quebec Midget AAA Hockey League Lac St. Louis Lions improved their regular season record to 3-1 last weekend taking two games, including a 7-3 win over the Rousseau Sports of Laval-Bourassa last Friday night in their home opener at the Dollard Civic Centre. The Lions also defeated rival Châteauguay Patriotes 7-5 on Sunday afternoon in Châteauguay. David Dupuis led the Lions with a hat trick on Friday while Stefan Fournier, Louis Leblanc, Mathieu Gingras and Ken Matheson added singles. On Sunday, it was Leblanc’s turn to score three goals, while Gingras added a pair. Fournier and Alex Stephenson rounded out the scoring.

The Lions will host the Montreal Predators on Friday night before welcoming the Laurentides Vikings on Saturday night. Both games are at the Civic Centre, and scheduled for 7:30 starts.

Area baseball not finished yet

Local amateur diamond fans still thirsty for exciting high-level competition are in luck as fall baseball is about to hit the West Island. The Lac St. Louis Classic, a three-day fall ball tournament is scheduled to begin next Friday at Westminster and Lake Road parks in Dollard des Ormeaux. The event will feature hand picked under-12, -14 and -16 squads from several regions. The West Island will be represented by Lac St. Louis, whose roster will include many elite West Island players.

“It’s all going to be very well organized,” said Ray Callari, the general manager in charge of selecting players for the Lac St. Louis squads, which will be called the Pirates at u-12 and -14 levels and the Blue Jays at u-16. “Lac St. Louis has been unlucky at the u-16 level with three guys going down with injuries, but that’s life.”

The three Lac St. Louis squads have been playing in tournaments throughout September, including this past weekend in Gatineau, where the Blue Jays emerged with the gold medal.

For more information on fall ball and the upcoming Lac St. Louis tournament, go to www.leaguelineup.com

Isle gridders top Victoriaville

The John Abbott Islander football team evened their record to 2-2 following a wild 32-31 win over Victoriaville on Saturday night in Victoriaville. The Islanders never led in the game until the final second when punter Scott Mironowicz kicked a single point as time ran out in the game. The Vulkins led 15-0 after the first quarter, 21-10 at halftime and 24-17 after three quarters. The Islanders had a huge night offensively as quarterback Terence Morsinik completed 26 of 48 passes for 509 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. Morsinik also ran for a touchdown. Mironowicz was his favorite target with 11 catches for 227 yards and 2 touchdowns; James Crowe had 9 catches for 196 yards and 1 major score and Justin Mclean had 4 catches for 68 yards including a key 44-yard reception in the final seconds that set up the winning kick. Placekicker Mclean was good on 4 converts and a 17-yard field goal. Defensively, the Islanders were led by Philippe Lavallee with 6 tackles and Brendan Parm had 5 tackles sack. Richard Van Gameren had a fumble recovery.



Isles rugby wins big

The John Abbott College Islanders men's rugby team opened their 2007 regular season schedule on Sunday in TMR with the 47-7 win over Marianopolis. Islander tries were scored by David Miles, Ryan Lague, Mike Homsy, Kris McKeown, Anthony D'Urbano, Sean Michael McCaffrey and 12 points converted by Sean Michael McCaffrey. Players of the Game were Matthew Cifelli and Marc Tate Belvedere

Lacrosse team opens with win

The John Abbott College Islanders men's lacrosse team started off the season on Sunday with an 8-4 win over the Montmorency Nomades. Playing an excellent first half, the Islanders found themselves in total control of the game, leading 7-1 at the half. This year's Islanders squad is the most balanced ever, and it showed on the score sheet as the Isles had 7 different goal scorers. David Bosse, Zachary Strickland, Drew Pelletier, Nick Robitaille, Phil Brunet, James Feghali, all scored once, while first-year forward Alexis Gagnon-Dolbec added two and an assist before getting injured.