The Rayburn Construction Northmen are one step closer to their quest for another Minto Cup championship title after sweeping Whitby 4-0 in their best of seven OLA Junior A quarter-finals.

Favoured by many to go the distance in 2009, the Northmen set the pace early in this series when they took a decisive 19-4 decision in game one and never looked back from there on.

Heading into Whitby for game two last Thursday. the Warriors new that, if they had any hopes against Orangeville, they would have to win at home.

Putting in their strongest showing of the set, Whitby played even with the Northmen through the first 40 minutes of play, trailing Orangeville by just one with the score 8-7 heading into the third.

With Jeremy Noble leading the way in the third, Orangeville stepped up their game and quickly vanquished any misconceptions the Warriors might possibly have had on winning, adding five more to their tally to make it 13- 9 before the final buzzer sounded to end the game.

Game three back at the Tony Rose on Friday proved to be another big night for the Northmen snipers.

Adam Jones wasted no time getting this one going. Recording 11 points on the night, Jones scored his first of four goals, this one assisted by Noble just eighteen seconds into the game.

Jesse Gamble would follow that up just over a minute later with his first of four before the Warriors managed to figure a way past Nick Rose for their first at 7:17.

From that point on it would be all Orangeville as the Northmen machine kicked it into high gear in front of the home town crowd.

John Quarrie had the hottest stick of the night for Orangeville with five goals while Mat McLeod added three and Travis Gibbons notched a pair. Singles also came from Noble, Brandon Ivey, Jason Noble, Damon Edwards, Andrew Suitor and Mike Teeter before the final buzzer sounded on a 25-5 final score.

And with that, the stage was set for a sweep by the Northmen back in Whitby on Tuesday night.

Picking up right where they had left off the game before, Orangeville got out to a quick 6-0 lead on goals from Quarrie (2), Noble, Gibbons, Ivey and Teeter.

Whitby made the most of one of their few offensive chances just past the midway point of the opening frame before Teeter cancelled that with his second of three to give Orangeville a 7-1 lead heading into the second.

After reading the writing on the wall and doing what they could to contain the Northmen shooters, Whitby's Cameron Holding and Kyle Goodchild each scored one for the Warriors in the third.

But it was just too little, too late as the men in black added seven more over the final 40 minutes to post a 14-3 final score to take the series in four.

Heading into the second round, one Northmen player many will be watching is Adam Jones. Currently leading the play-off scoring with a total of 31 points, he knows that the things will only get tougher from this point on. " Coming into the playoffs, all of us knew regardless who we play, we have got to bring our best to every game. We knew that if even wanted to go four in four (against Whitby) , we need to play our game, keep our focus and the momentum going."

Asked about how difficult it is to be the one centred out, Jones says it is actually easier when they key in on you. "When that happens it frees up our other guys to get in there and create scoring opportunities for them".

Looking forward to their next opponent - either St Catharines or Six Nations, Jones is quite confident in his team and fellow players. He says that "as long as we go in there and play our game and use our speed, we should be away."

And which of those two teams Orangeville likely will meet will be decided on Wednesday night (results unavailable at press time) when the two meet for game seven at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena.

Whichever team wins, however, will be in Orangeville on Friday night when the Northmen plan on kicking off the semi-finals with an 8 p.m. start at the Tony Rose