Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
Three was the lucky number for the Napanee U14 Peewee Express this weekend, guiding them to a second place finish at the OASA Eliminations held in Oshawa.
By virtue of their second place finish, the Express have punched their ticket to nationals, which will take place Aug. 8-12 in Stouffville, Ont.
Each player on the Express wore a number three on the back of their helmet in support of their friend, Camden Arthur, who is battling an illness. An avid hockey and ball player, Arthur sports the number three on the back of his jerseys.
“The boys all decided to get number threes to put on the back of their helmets for young Camden Arthur,” said Express head coach Scott Thompson. “He’s a young boy in our community who is really sick right now. They dedicated the weekend to him, they all pulled together and gave everything they had.”
Members of the Napanee Peewee Express show their support for Camden Arthur, who wears number three. Submitted photo.
Napanee reached the finals of the tournament, falling 8-1 to the Simcoe Braves. It was the Braves who also handed them their only other loss of the tournament, topping the Express 10-0 in the undefeated game on Sunday morning.
Napanee opened the tournament with an 11-0 win over Brussels on Friday night followed by an 8-1 win over Westport. They officially clinched a spot at nationals with a 9-1 mercy win over their longtime rivals from Springbrook on Saturday afternoon. That placed them in the undefeated game Sunday morning, which they lost to Simcoe. They did bounce back with a 5-3 win over Shallow Lake to earn a rematch and a berth in the finals before falling to the Braves once more.
“It was outstanding,” Thompson said of the weekend overall. “We played those guys (Simcoe) a few times this year, we beat them once, went into extra innings with them at the Napanee tournament. They kind of had our number in this tournament. We were looking to qualify for Canadians and we had no gimmie games, every team we played was a strong team. The boys really pulled together and swung the bats well.”
Aiden Reddick of the Express was named the tournament’s MVP as he was nearly impossible for opposing pitchers to get out all weekend. Thompson said the whole team played well however.
“It was a full team effort, everybody was in every game,” said the coach. “Everybody did their part that we needed them to do to get (to the finals).”
The Express will have another shot at the Braves the weekend of July 27-29 when they travel to Simcoe to take part in provincials. That’ll be a final tuneup before the Canadians in Stouffville.
In the meantime they’ll continue to show their support for Arthur throughout his battle. Anyone looking to assist in his fight can contact CamdenStrong@gmail.com