Victoria Sports Online

Starting the season with three consecutive losses to the Edmonton Capitals, the Victoria Seals were set to close out the four-game series at Telus Field on Sunday afternoon with a win. And that's exactly what they did beating the Capitals 3-1 and picking up their first franchise victory.

The Victoria Shamrocks began what the team hopes will be a successful 2009 season on Friday night with a 12-11 victory over Langley at Bear Mountain Arena.

Victoria took control of the game early leading 4-1 following the first period, only to have Langley storm back and tie the game midway through the second. The Shamrocks and Thunder then traded leads as the game was tied 7 all going into the third. Victoria once again took a three goal lead early in the final period, only to allow Langley to catch up and tie it once again. With the game tied 11 all with less than a minute to go, Victoria's Luke Wiles scored to give the Shamrocks the lead for good.

For the second night in a row the Victoria Seals squared off against the Edmonton Capitals at Telus Field. On another beautiful night for baseball, Victoria turned to former Expo’s first-round pick Josh Karp (0-0), making his first start in four years on the mound. Edmonton, meanwhile, went with Justin Jordan (0-0) to start the game.

You would of thought a new theme park was opening in Edmonton on Thursday night as the city pulled out all the stops to celebrate their inagural game in the Golden Baseball League against the Victoria Seals. Helicopters, Fireworks even Steve Staios of the Edmonton Oilers was on hand at the new Telus Field to witness the Capitals beat the Seals 10-6 in the Seals first game in the GBL.

The 2009 South Island High School Rugby Playoffs concluded last Thursday, as the AA and AAA finals took place.

In the Colonel Hodgkins Cup for the AA title, the regular season champions Esquimalt Dockers were put to the test against a solid Reynolds squad. In the end, Esquimalt escaped with a 15-14 victory to claim the championship.

The Victoria Highlanders FC are now three weeks and four games old and are yet to lose a match. Following a tie in Portland on May 9th, the Highlanders returned to BC to take on Abbotsford on Saturday and earned a hard fought point in a 2-2 draw.

This game was the toughest test yet for the Highlanders as the Mariners came strong and scored two goals in the first 10 minutes of the match.

"Jamie Benn will be in the NHL next year!" That was the comment made by TSN analyst Pierre McGuire after showing hilights of the Victoria product score goal after goal at the Memorial Cup. The Kelowna Rockets forward made quite a name for himself on Monday night scoring four goals and adding an assist to lead his Rockets to a 6-4 win over the Drummondville Voltigeurs before a crowd of 4,225 at the Colisee de Rimouski. The victory earned the Rockets an automatic bye into Sunday’s final regardless of what happens in the team’s final round-robin game Tuesday against the Ontario Hockey League champion Windsor Spitfires.

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champs held a one-goal lead on three occasions, but could not stop Benn, who has been in on eight of Kelowna’s 10 goals in the tournament and has five of them.

The first time Riley McCormick climbed up the 10m platform at Commonwealth Pool, he was 4 years old. The Victoria diver is now 17, and heading to his third world aquatics diving championships this summer in Rome. McCormick, who was the youngest of the 46 Island athletes at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, booked his ticket to Rome by winning the men's 10-metre platform Sunday at the Canadian trials in Montreal.

The Jr. A Shamrocks are prooving last years trip to the Minto Cup was no mistake. After finishing runner-up at last years national Jr. A tournament, the Rocks have opened the 2009 campaign with a vengance. On Sunday, the Rocks picked up their second win in as many days, scoring 8 third-period goals, to beat the Delta Islanders 13-7.

The title for men’s Senior ‘A’ supremacy in British Columbia came down to one goal, the problem for the Gorge Football Club, it wasn't theres. Gorge FC lost a squeaker on Saturday night as West Vancouver scored a 1-0 victory at Coquitlam to take the 2009 Province Cup. With the win, West Vancouver will advance to the Canadian championships in the fall.