The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.insidehalton.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, October 12, 2017 | 56 Titans hope football glory years are back With a wide array of offensive weapons, a sometimes overshadowed defence and a Rourke at quarterback, it is quite possible the Holy Trinity Titans' biggest feat is mastering time travel. But despite the similarities to their 2014 undefeated OFSAA Bowl championship team, the 2017 version of the Titans didn't have to travel through time. They simply had to wait for their time to arrive. After back-to-back 7-2 seasons that ended in losses in the Halton semis in 2015 and the final in 2016 -- both to Nelson -- the Titans look poised to take another run at an OFSAA Bowl football title. In a battle of the last two undefeated Halton Catholic teams, the Titans took a 35-0 lead by halftime on its way to a 45-21 victory over Assumption. That win helped Holy Trinity move up seven spots from No. 30 to No. 23 in Canada Football Chat's national high school ranking. "We're pretty blessed. We have a lot of talented players," said Titans coach Joe Moscato. The Titans showed off a wealth of offensive talent, getting touchdowns from six players and demonstrating the same big-play capability that the championship team possessed. In addition to his TD that opened the scoring, Bren Carey also caught passes for 23 and 51 yards. Justice McRae broke free for a 61-yard major after taking a pass from Kurtis Rourke. Rourke didn't look at all worried about filling the shoes of his brother Nathan, now at Ohio University. He made it 21-0 by taking it in from a yard out, but it was his arm that did most of the damage. He threw for more than 330 yards in the first half, completing 12 of 15 during one stretch. "It's encouraging to have so many options," he said of the high-powered Titans offence that has scored at least 45 points in each of its four victories. "Last year we started as a new group and by the end of the season we were playing pretty well, but sadly we lost in the championship game." The Titans look determined to not suffer the same fate this season and after 28- and 24-point wins over the only one-loss teams (Jean Vanier and Assumption), Trinity has the inside track on becoming the newly-formed Halton Catholic Athletic Association's first champion. However, the road back to an OFSAA Bowl will have to go through either St. Thomas More, ranked seventh nationally, or its nemesis, Nelson. Kristian Milford (14-yard catch), Niko Nikolic (39-yard run) and Dante Richards (two-yard catch) also had touchdowns for the Titans while Damian Lee added an 18-yard field goal and showed the leg strength to put up points from much farther away. With all that firepower on offence, it's easy to overlook the defence. But they don't exactly do themselves any favours. During one 15-minute stretch the Titans defence was on the field for only 10 plays, allowing just a single first down. "Our front seven is very strong," Moscato said. "Our two defensive ends (Robert Proner and Robert Policelli) and our linebacking corps (Milford, McRae and Raad Raad), if they can stop the rush, it allows our defensive backs to be athletic." The Titans have already posted a pair of shutouts this season, and the defence will be every bit as important in Holy Trinity advancing beyond its league. -- Herb Garbutt, Oakville Beaver staff s i l v e r a t w o r l d s Several students from the Yamato Academy of Martial Arts represented Canada at the seventh Karate-do Goju-kai Global Championship that wrapped up earlier this month in Richmond, B.C. Banyamin Lak (above) led the club with a silver-medal win in Kata. All six (left) of the club's representatives -- Cassidy Jackson, Emily Jackson, Jayde Fearon, Jordyn Fearon, Benjamin Skinner and Lak -- fared well after working hard to prepare for the tournament. | photo submitted