The annual St. Benedict CSS "Saints Invitational" 32-team tournament is set to go this coming weekend in Cambridge, with its usual variety of teams including a couple of notable out-of-town entrants (Brampton D'Youville and Windsor Catholic Central).This will be the second year that a junior 16-team event joins with the senior event, so with gym space at a premium, games will be played at 6 of the 7 high schools in Cambridge (both Catholic schools and 4 of 5 public schools, with GPSS being the exception to the rule).
Early indicators would put Brampton D'Youville and Windsor Catholic Central as favourites to advance through the brackets to meet in the championship final on Saturday evening at SBCSS (8pm), but it's a very tough tournament having to play 5 games in two days.
Top CWOSSA teams in the mix include Grand River (#3) & JF Ross (#5), two top-5 teams that could potentially meet in the quarterfinals. Alongside those two, Bishop Mac (#4), St. James (#8), Resurrection (#9) and Brantford St. John's (#10) round out the 60% of my ranked teams participating in this one.
CWOSSA teams have had some recent success, with St. Mary's advancing to the final in 2012 and Resurrection capturing the title in 2011.
Here's the first-round of games (I've uploaded the full draw as a Google Doc if you want to check it out, as well):
Friday, January 10th
Grand River vs. Huron Park (Woodstock) - 9:30am, SBCSS
St. Benedict vs. St. Anne Lakeshore - 11am, SBCSS
JF Ross vs. Forest Heights - 12:30pm, Jacob Hespeler E
Sudbury Lasalle vs. Collingwood - 2:00pm, Jacob Hespeler E
Bishop Mac vs. Bluevale - 9:30am, Jacob Hespeler W
Jacob Hespeler vs. St. Theresa (Midland) - 11:00am, Jacob Hespeler W
Southwood vs. D'Youville (Brampton) - 12:30pm, Southwood
Richmond Hill vs. Turner Fenton (Brampton) - 2pm, Southwood
Galt CI vs. St. Patrick's (Sarnia) - 12:30pm, Galt CI
Kingston Frontenac vs. St. David (Waterloo) - 2:00pm, Galt CI
St. John's vs. Huron Heights (Kit.) - 9:30am, Jacob Hespeler E
Timmins vs. St. James - 11:00am, Jacob Hespeler E
Preston vs. Resurrection - 12:30pm, Preston
Bishop Reding (Milton) vs. Eastwood - 2:00pm, Preston
WCI vs. Adam Scott (Peterborough) - 12:30pm, MDCSS
Mons. Doyle vs. Catholic Central (Windsor) - 2:00pm, MDCSS
