Banting Memorial High School’s senior boys rugby team was handed its first defeat of the season at a tournament in Waterloo this past weekend.

The squad was at Wilfred Laurier University for the Red Hot Tournament, which featured 58 senior boys teams from across the province. The Marauders, ranked second in the province at the time, won their first game of the tournament, but were put in a pool with the tough fourth-ranked team from Saltfleet District High School in Stoney Creek, Ont.

While the Marauders beat Saltfleet earlier this season, the Banting defence couldn’t withstand a barrage of offence from the Stoney Creek side in the second half.

“We came away from the tournament knowing that on any given day, it could go either way for Saltfleet and ourselves, and that day it went Saltfleet’s,” said co-coach Brett McGuinness.

The game started well for Banting, who took a 3-0 lead into halftime. A series of second-half offside penalties put the Saltfleet team into scoring position, and before long their offence was able to break the Banting squad. Salfleet scored, and made the conversion, to take a 7-3 lead, which is how the game finished.

The loss to Saltfleet effectively eliminated any chance of the Marauders advancing to the next round, but that didn’t keep the boys from putting in a strong showing for their final game against St. Francis Xavier Secondary School from Mississauga, McGuinness said. Banting won 20-0.

“We were disappointed by our first loss of the season, but not disappointed by the character and strong play of our team. They represented our high school proudly,” McGuinness said.

The Marauders were missing a crucial element of the team, with Jordan Ross playing in British Columbia for the Canadian under-20 team. Ross’ position of fly-half was played by Stephen Fievet, who McGuinness said performed well with the help of players like Matt Del Gobbo and Rory Tomlinson.

The Marauders will have to become accustomed to playing without Ross, who will be departing for Europe to compete in the World Under-20 Championships at the same time his Banting team will be heading into the playoffs.

Even with Ross, reaching and winning OFSAA will be daunting, McGuinness said, with a number of strong teams competing across the province this year, including a particularly strong first-ranked team from Brantford Collegiate Institute.

Despite being in tough, McGuinness said the team is capable of shaking the recent loss and learning from their mistakes.

“We were devastated by the loss to Saltfleet, but are quite strong in our resolve to fix the few cracks in our armour and come back better for it,” said McGuinness.

The Marauders will be in Barrie tomorrow (Thursday) for a game against Barrie Central Collegiate, who is currently ranked sixth in the province. Kickoff is at 2 p.m. The school is at 125 Dunlop St. W.