A pair of improved performances at the 2023 OFSAA Soccer Championships will have to be enough for both the Horizon Aigles (girls) and the St Charles College Cardinals (boys), even as both came ever so close to getting their foot in the door of quarter-final action earlier this month.

Travelling to London, the two time city girls champions from Val Caron posted a round robin record of 2-1-1 but were eliminated thanks to a goals differential tie-breaker.

This outcome came after the Aigles dropped their opener to Sainte Trinité (3-1), but reeled off victories over Mackenzie Community School in Deep River (5-2) and Hamilton District High-School (2-1) before playing to a 1-1 draw with E.S.C. E.J. Lajeunesse.

The St Charles College Cardinals boys’ team nearly duplicated this feat, splitting their four game preliminary round set 2-2 and finishing one point shy of a playoff berth. The Cards were riding the teeter-totter at OFSAA, blasting the Bayside Red Devils 6-1 in their opener as Nathan Cranston scored twice and Braxton Ragogna, Michael Nazaruk, Manzo Shimizu and Joe Gouchie added one goal each.

A 4-0 loss to the Gisele-Lalonde Titans (4-0), the eventual bronze medal winners would leave the NOSSA champs sitting at 1-1 after day one, keeping their playoff hopes alive with a 4-2 win over the King City Lions on Friday morning (Manzo Shimizu, Tyler Thibodeau, Blake Rosener, Nicholas McGee).

But running with a depleted roster due to prom later that day, the Cards were edged 4-3 by the Aldershot Lions as Nathan Cranston registered his second two goal performance of the tournament while Braxton Ragogna closed off the scoring.

Both the Lo-Ellen Park Knights (OFSAA AAA) and the St Benedict Bears (OFSAA A) boys had a tough time hitting the win column as the high-school provincial championship calendar drew to a close.