HIGH ACHIEVERS: Maplewood Moose take giant stride into OFSAA-division field hockey, Merivale shoots for repeat

By Martin Cleary

Every high school year is a new challenge, whether it’s in the classroom or in sports venues.

The Maplewood Secondary School Moose girls’ field hockey team certainly knows what that’s all about.

The Stittsville-based school is three years old and has welcomed students for Grades 9, 10 and 11 this academic year. It will offer Grade 12 in the 2027-28 school session and become a complete high school.

By having students in all four grades, Maplewood’s varsity athletic teams certainly will benefit and be able to keep pace with other more established schools.

But the Moose girls’ field hockey team couldn’t wait another year and took a major step this season as the National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association fall sports season has or will open on five fronts this week.

After playing its first two years at the Tier 2 level, the Moose decided to take a giant step up the competitive ladder by skipping up two levels to the top OFSAA division.

Maplewood and Bell will compete in the OFSAA division for a chance to reach the Ontario high school field hockey championship Nov. 5-7 in Milton along with defending champion Merivale, Nepean, Ashbury, St. Mother Teresa and South Carleton. Earl of March dropped down to the 12-school, non-OFSAA division this fall.

“We felt the challenge was fit for us,” said Maplewood coach Sandeep Chopra, a community coach with the 25-year-old Nepean Nighthawks Field Hockey Club.

In its first OFSAA division match on Monday, the Moose more than met the challenge, despite dropping a 2-1 decision to the St. Mother Teresa Titans.

Maplewood had several good scoring chances throughout the game and Sam Koch connected on a short corner to tie the game 1-1 in the third quarter.

A short time later, Ida Neumann scored the game-winning goal for the Titans. Abbey Dyke notched the only goal in the first half for St. Mother Teresa.

Fielding a team of Grade 9 student-athletes for the 2024 season, the Moose had one win and five losses, while scoring two goals and allowing 24 in Tier 2.

But Maplewood was sharply improved with a team of Grade 9 and 10 student-athletes in 2025, finishing its Tier 2 regular season in third place with three wins, one loss and two ties. In the playoffs, the Moose lost its semifinal to St. Peter.

“I was really, really happy with the game,” said Chopra, who continually called out coaching instructions from the sidelines. “You always want to win. But this is only the school’s third year for field hockey.

“A 2-1 loss is not too bad. We’ll get better. We have a tournament coming up (this week) for a chance to play games and get more experience under our belts.”

The Nepean Nighthawks are running a three-day tournament for high school teams at the Nepean Sportsplex’s Minto Field from Wednesday through Friday. Each team will play several half-hour games on one of those three days.

“Seven of our players have never played field hockey,” he added. “I’m super happy they all have the physical literacy. We’ll teach them about field hockey.”

Another challenge for the seven teams in the OFSAA division is to see if the city champion can achieve something never done by an Ottawa school at the provincial championship. Ottawa has never won the OFSAA girls’ field hockey title, although the Merivale Marauders won the bronze medal in 2024.

“Our team two years ago was very strong,” Merivale teacher-coach Meghan Foottit said, following the Marauders’ 4-0 decision over Nepean Knights.

“Almost every school in Toronto and area have turf fields and there’s so much more field hockey there. We only have one turf field to play on.”

That scenario is set to change soon enough, with the Nighthawks-powered Field Hockey Centre under development around the corner from Merivale on Colonnade Road.

Read More: Look out Ottawa, first dedicated field hockey pitch projected for fall 2027

Foottit added the stronger school teams in the province also have many student-athletes playing high levels of field hockey in the off-season. Merivale had about half of its roster playing in the off-season in 2024. There are about five Marauders involved in off-season field hockey this season.

Vivian Harvey, who is a member of the Canadian women’s junior ultimate team, scored two goals for Merivale, while Brae-Lynn Walker and Raina Fitzpatrick counted one goal apiece. Sierra Tsagaris, who is a Grade 9 student and a ringette goalie, earned the Merivale shutout.

“I was really happy with it. We were a little rusty last week (at a tournament), but I was happy they made all the adjustments,” Foottit added about the game.

It’s only the first game of a short, six-week season, but she’s not thinking about a ninth NCSSAA title and a ninth OFSAA championship appearance.

“We don’t like to talk about it (winning the OFSAA title). That would be the icing on the cake,” she added.

In the only high school field hockey league game on Tuesday, Ashbury blanked South Carleton 4-0.

Field hockey, girls’ senior and junior tier 1 and tier 2 basketball, boys’ senior tier 1 and tier 2 and boys’ junior soccer, boys’ senior volleyball and tackle football have started or will kickoff this week. Waiting in the wings are flag football, cross-country running, swimming, golf and tennis.

Here’s a quick snapshot of some other early action from Monday and Tuesday:

BASKETBALL

· Four girls’ senior teams broke the 60-point mark as Notre Dame downed St. Francis Xavier 67-26, Louis-Riel got past Osgoode 66-51, Earl of March defeated St. Joseph 62-51 and Sacred Heart outscored St. Mother Teresa 62-53.

· The closest game was a 52-51 decision in favour of South Carleton over St. Mark.

· In a defensive match, Gisèle-Lalonde shaded Canterbury 26-21.

SOCCER

· If your team scored four goals, there was a good chance a boys’ tier 1 victory was yours – De La Salle 4, Ashbury 0; St. Peter 4, St. Matthew 1; Holy Trinity 4, Franco-Ouest 1; and Mer-Bleue 4, Sir Wilfrid Laurier 2.

· In the tightest game, St. Pius shut out Immaculata 1-0.

VOLLEYBALL

· Sixteen boys’ senior matches were played in the first two days and six were extended to the maximum five games. On Tuesday, Bell rallied to edge Maurice-Lapointe 25-20, 22-25, 21-25, 25-14, 17-15. Holy Trinity also needed to work extra hard to hold off South Carleton 25-12, 17-25, 25-19, 24-26, 17-15. St. Matthew won the odd-numbered games to defeat Riverside South 25-11, 23-25, 25-20, 13-25, 15-11. On Monday, Merivale held off Franco-Ouest 25-18, 25-21, 20-25, 22-25, 15-12, Franco-Cité rebounded to beat Garneau 14-25, 26-24, 22-25, 25-23, 15-8, and Brookfield followed a similar format to turn back Samuel Genest 22-25, 25-13, 18-25, 25-17, 15-13.

TACKLE FOOTBALL

· All 12 varsity teams will be in action Thursday through Saturday with exhibition games to prepare for the start of the regular season Sept. 30. The exhibition schedule has Colonel By at St. Mother Teresa, Sacred Heart at Sir Wilfrid Laurier and St. Matthew at St. Joseph on Thursday; St. Mark at Mer-Bleue and Holy Trinity at St. Peter on Friday; and St. Patrick’s at Ashbury on Saturday as a highlight for the college’s annual reunion.