The St Charles College Cardinals senior boys soccer team did not expect to score eight times in the city finals on Tuesday – though they knew they could score.
Horizon Aigles’ star striker and GSSC (Greater Sudbury Soccer Club) product Kiara Levac expects to score pretty much every time she steps on the field, such is the offensive skill-set that she has developed over the years.
Both of the above were definitely doing their thing at the James Jerome Sports Complex – but the prettiest goals of the evening might well have come courtesy of Lo-Ellen Park Knights junior boys defender Caelen Davie, unleashing a pair of “bend if like Beckham” bombs.
A natural left-footer, Davie curled a pair of corner kicks directly into the goal using nothing but a little wind assistance and a solid understanding of physics, helping his team to a 4-2 win in the SDSSAA championship affair over St Charles College. Quin Mazzuchin and Massimo Toffoli also tallied for the winners with Chinedum Kingsley and Gabe Sonntag replying for the Cards.
Perhaps this was a bit of retribution for the contest that opened the day of hardware being doled out as St Charles defended their city crown with an 8-0 whitewashing of Lo-Ellen. That score might be a bit misleading as the Cardinals took a 2-0 lead to the half-time break, with Nathan Cranston scoring twice in the opening 15 minutes or so, before an indirect kick from very close range early in the second allowed Nick McGee to absolutely open the floodgates for SCC.
By the time the damage was done, Cranston had added a hat trick, giving him five for the game, with Braxton Ragogna chipping in with a pair of tallies to join McGee on the scoresheet as St Charles made life easy on keeper Alex Chartier, tidying things up neatly at the opposite end of the pitch.
“The main focus for us was more on the defensive side of things,” noted senior midfielder Blake Rosener, who was a key cog in a Cardinals’ passing machine that dominated possession for stretches on end. “We know we’re very strong through the mid and up top. We focused on not letting them get many chances because we know that they have some strength up top.”
“If we don’t, we know we can score goals.”
The New Sudbury soccer powerhouse appears to be absolutely hitting their stride just as NOSSA and OFSAA tournaments arrive, with Rosener in full agreement that this is a pretty special team.
“We have tons of GSSC players on this team; we just had to get the chemistry going, become a good group of friends,” he said. “It’s a good group of guys, for sure – and the way we move the ball is amazing.”
That kind of fancy footwork was not limited to the SDSSAA Open Premier boys tilt as Kiara Levac drilled home the only goal of the game in the Open Premier girls’ affair, helping the Horizon Aigles to a 1-0 win over St Charles, the Val Caron school also defending their crown.
In similar fashion to goals that she has showcased on a handful of occasions this spring already, Levac was moving to her left, across the box when she went back against the grain for a quick strike that sailed high into the far top corner, well outside of the reach of St Charles’ goalie Zoe Rienguette.
“My coaches for (GSSC) Impact have really pushed me to get open, get into space,” explained Levac. “We’ve been working on it for a long time and it’s just a habit now.”
The contest was a scoreless affair at the break, with the Cardinals doing a nice job of congesting the middle of the field, marking Levac closely through the work of Katelynn Jacques, primarily.
“They were clamping up the middle so we had to get it out wide and work into space and get open after that,” explained Levac, with the Aigles now preparing for NOSSA in North Bay on Friday, looking to make a return trip to OFSAA.
The high-school soccer week dovetailed nicely from a very busy weekend of GSSC soccer, with a number of teams enjoying a very solid start as the locals venture into Toronto Soccer League play for the first time ever this summer.
“I thought we were going to get beat,” acknowledged left centre midfielder Mia Beites, somewhat sheepishly, her U14 Impact team having easily taken care of business on Saturday, grounding Toronto High Park by a final count of 6-1. “But it took only a few minutes for us to get a goal.”
Ryann Chevrier paced the GSSC attack with a three goal performance, with Ariana Tonkovic adding a pair and Eva Haraschuk closing off the scoring. Sudbury Coach Steve Gallo has assembled a crew that clearly has a nose for the net. “I always want to score, but I get a lot of assists with Makenna (Messier),” said Beites.
“As long as I get assists, it’s fun too.”
Beites would get on the scoresheet the following day as the Impact duplicated their 6-1 stat line with a victory over the North Toronto Nitros by that same margin as Chevrier added two more, joined on the scoresheet by Avery Mininni, Eva Haraschuk, Lia Gallo and Beites.
The girls weren’t the only team piling up the goals as the Impact U13 Boys doubled the North Toronto Nitros 6-3 on Saturday, besting Wexford 6-1 the next day. Their well-balanced attack featured three goals apiece from both Xander Millett and Rhys Johnson-Calixte, a pair of strikes Nathan Estriplet as well as markers from Devun Panella, Fengning Ye, Hudson Green and Matteo Grebe.
The Impact U18 Boys pulled one out of the fire, recording a 3-2 win over the Olympic Flame as Braydon Ethier-Perras, Finn Gould and Maliq Olanrewaju all hit the mark for head coach Nicholas Walker and company.
The Impact U17 Boys also mastered the art of winning the close ones this past weekend, edging both Canadian FC 3-2 (Atom Thususka, Liam Binks, Sam Oduwole) and CTSA (Canadian Tamil Sports Association) 2-1 (Liam Binks, Maximus Aziz).
Finally, the U14 Impact Boys came close but could not pull off the tie, dropping a 3-2 decision to North York EFC Boca as Landon Lake-Rego and Matteo Ceccon scored for Sudbury.
