With a national title on the line, the junior Hardy Heroes huddle together and pretend they’re back home in Oakville, playing just another game of pick-up road hockey.

“Imagine,” says one of the boys, “we’re on Hardy Cres., and whoever loses has to bring in the nets.”

That was last weekend, when the teens competed in the under-19 category of the Play On! National Championships in Kingston. The boys ended up losing in the finals to clinch second place at the Canada-wide ball hockey tournament. The result was echoed by their elder brethren, the senior Hardy Heroes, who lost to a seasoned and well-decorated Montreal team that included Vancouver Canucks forward Alex Burrows.

Notice their identical team names: the Hardy Heroes. It’s a nod to their common origins on Hardy Cres., an otherwise typical stretch of suburban street in southeast Oakville, made significant by the friendships they forged during near-constant games of road hockey on the asphalt between their childhood homes.

“We have something almost no other teams have: that closeness,” said Chris Festarini, 21, goalie for the elder Heroes’ team who went on to play in the Ontario Hockey League and at Wilfrid Laurier University.

“We live and breathe Hardy Cres,” he said. “We’re like a family.”

For the younger Heroes, some of their earliest memories involve watching their older brothers clash sticks on the road with the neighbourhood kids.

“It started off as, the big kids — they played and we watched them. Then we would start playing,” said Matt Lyon, 16. “From there we would hang out and stuff — go see movies. But road hockey was sort of the basis.”

The Hardy Cres. scrimmages really got going after the Festarini family moved onto the street in 2000. The home of the three Festarini boys — Alex, Chris and Nic — became the hub of hockey activity on Hardy. The Festarinis even got a dog, a fluffy little cairn terrier named — what else? — Hardy. He’s the Heroes’ mascot.

“It’s like the centrepiece for our friendship,” said Matt of the Festarini house. “They’ve got the nets and they’ve got the (hockey) supplies.”

Growing up, the kids would come home from school, eat a quick snack and immediately set to shooting around tennis balls on the street, said Drew Lyon, 23, Matt’s older brother. The boys would try to fit in two games before they were called in for dinner. They’d eat as fast as they could so they could get back out there and play some more. When the sun went down, it’d be next-goal-wins and they’d call it a night.

Their game regimen got more intense in the summertime, said Alex Festarini, 18. They’d squeeze in 10 games a day if they could, jumping into one of their backyard pools to cool off before hitting the street again.

They’d get the odd complaint from the neighbours, too. The cops occasionally showed up when people were worried cars would get dented. “Our shots got a lot harder,” said Drew.

Some games were heated and personal; others jovial and fun-hearted. One night etched in the annals of “Hardy History” is from Christmas break 2007. As Chris recalls, there was a massive snowstorm while they played in the street, and parents came to their front doors to call the boys in.

But the score was 9-9. Leaving a game like that, as the saying goes, is like kissing your sister. No way.

“You can’t see anything; there’s ice all over the road. It’s next goal wins and the ball is on the goal-line,” said Chris. “Everyone’s just dying laughing and piling on each other, trying to get that ball in.”

The Heroes entered their first organized tournament five years ago, a local affair the junior and senior teams each won handily. “We kicked their butts and we were like, ‘Wow, we’re pretty good,’”said Alex.

From there, the elder group started competing in more serious ball hockey tournaments, winning a regional contest in Toronto and travelling to compete in the Play On! nationals in three of the past four years. The junior Heroes joined them in Kingston last weekend for the first time, and the teams finished with their best-ever results.

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“Sometimes, because of how well we know each other, it just clicks and it’s like we’re back on Hardy,” said Drew.

But the Hardy scene has changed in recent years. Childhood is over for the older guys, and some of the little brothers are getting ready to move away for school.

“I miss my buddies already,” said Alex, who’s moving to Windsor for the fall semester. “But I know I can always go back to the street. There’s always hockey sticks in my garage and everybody’s always ready to play.”

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