It stretched from one blue line to the other, maybe even farther, and read: “Buyout ticket: $2. Spray paint: $16. Watching girls do what football team didn’t: Priceless!”

The poster referenced the Guelph CVI football team, who went undefeated before losing in the District 10 final back in November.

In front of the banner stood a few dozen Guelph CVI hockey fans. There was a horn. There was green make-up. A couple of guys even braved the frigid arena sans shirts.

But unfortunately for them, the Gaels girls hockey team they came to root for would go on suffer the same fate as the gridiron Gaels referenced in the big banner.

“It’s kind of disappointing,” said GCVI’s Lainy Cuncins after the team fell 4-1 to the Centre Wellington Falcons in the title game. “We played hard, but sometimes the bounces don’t go the way you want them to.”

The Gaels had a sparkling 10-0-0 record in the regular season, scoring 50 goals and conceding just eight.

They then went 2-0 in the league’s playoff tournament last Wednesday and earned a bye into the championship game. While the bye gave them a lengthy layoff between games, Centre Wellington was coming into the finals off a 6-3 semifinal win over Our Lady of Lourdes the day prior.

Cuncins says that might have sparked the Falcons.

“They were coming off the hype of winning, it might have helped them,” she said.

Centre Wellington’s Laura Brooker opened the scoring roughly two minutes in as a quick slap shot from about 25 feet out found the back of the net.

“I don’t even know how it happened,” said Brooker after the game. “I just shot the puck thinking anything can happen, and I heard the ping in the back and I was like, ‘Oh O. K., that works.’”

For the next few minutes, the Gaels were buzzing around the Falcons net in search of the equalizer. Cuncins scored but the goal was disallowed because, she said, the refs said they blew the whistle before the puck crossed the line.

While GCVI continued to have their share of chances, they couldn’t bulge the twine and trailed 1-0 after one frame.

A couple minutes into the second, Brooker again scored for the visitors, this time on a wrist shot. A couple of more goals made it 4- 0 before Cuncins cut into the lead by scoring with a minute and a half left in the second on a pass from Lacey Essery.

The teams played a scoreless third period and then the Falcons took to the ice en masse to celebrate their first title since the 2002-2003 season.

“It feels amazing,” said Brooker, who also plays for the Cambridge Fury of the Provincial Women’s Hockey League. “We were kind of low key at the beginning, but overall it’s great that our team pulled through. It’s fantastic.”

Cuncins, who also plays for the PWHL’s K-W Rangers, said coming into a championship game undefeated isn’t necessarily an easy thing.

“It added a lot of pressure,” she said. “Plus having our fans here cheering us on. It gets pretty nerve-wracking.”

The Gaels were without their head coach, Ron Wight, for the game. He was attending to a family emergency he learned of that day, said Brian Cluff, who manned the bench for the Gaels and said it was a challenge for the squad to play the finals without their coach.

Despite the loss, all is not lost for GCVI as they compete in the AAA/AAAA CWOSSA championships in Brantford next week.