This column will bring to an end the summer run of “Pascal on the Pitch” as this bi-weekly slot now gives way to “Randy in the Rings” – much to the delight of the local curling crowd.

To be sure, the soccer season has the feel of bringing down the curtain on 2026 with the Greater Sudbury Soccer Club (GSSC) having hosted their year-end banquet at the Caruso Club earlier this week and several squads wrapping up their schedules with either Cup or playoff action, perhaps some final league games or a tournament to tie a bow on their season.

That said, several of the Impact teams are now shifting their focus over to the PISL (Provincial Indoor Soccer League) and while we may not have access to a bi-weekly column to provide coverage of their accomplishments, we certainly all teams to stay in touch with regards to their winter indoor results.

The GSSC Impact U15 boys become the U16 outfit as they welcome the 2026-2027 sporting season, doing so on a high after capturing the HDSL Cup on the heels of a highly competitive semi-final playoff loss to the divisional front-runners. Considering that all of this came well after the team opened league play back in May/June with a couple of potentially discouraging losses, one cannot blame head coach Matt Cootes and company for feeling pretty darn good about the way that things progressed with this crew.

“One of the areas that this team has really improved a lot is that there is a lot more self-belief in what they are capable of doing,” said Cootes, his team have surrendered a 2-0 lead late in their Cup final with South Simcoe United, only to pull this one out of the fire with a 3-2 win.

A first half strike from Max Dodge opened the scoring for Sudbury with Dominique Soro doubling the advantage in the second half, the Impact feeling good about their chances. But a combination of defensive miscues and a little nervousness would see SSU equalize the contest at 2-2, leaving the northern U15 boys reeling.

“That next ten minutes (which included about five to six minutes of extra time), we came out with some real urgency,” said Cootes. “It was likely our best spell of the entire game.” The reward for same would come with roughly 30 seconds to play as Samuel Atte played Soro in and the natural goal scorer slotted the ball under the keeper for the win.

“If you’re going to win a Cup final with all of the emotions, this was certainly the way to do it,” said Cootes. With the local educator giving his players the responsibility of selecting team award winners, the year-end consensus would be: Perseverance / Most Improved - Ashton McConnell; Leadership - Jaxon Mathieu-Gibson; MVP – Cody Crocker.

Cootes had absolutely no issue with the choices, waxing poetic about the young man who patrols the key centerback position. “Cody just did not have one bad game; he was consistently excellent every game,” said Cootes. “He continues to get better and better in terms of reading the game.”

“His impact on the team in terms of the solidity, his control at the back-end with Jaxon is massive.” The balance of the 2026 U15 Impact boys team features Neil Arkuh, Marcelo Cisternas, Adrian Courtney, Calvin Faux, Tyler Gaudreau, Ewan Huang, Vincent Ladouceur, Ari Mai, Jason Rienguette, Jay Salawu, Xavio Cootes and Harrison Niganobe.

With the very tail-end of their i-Model schedule upon them, the U14 Impact boys have really kicked things into high gear, sweeping a pair of home games last weekend by lopsided margins as they prepare for another double-header again.

After playing IFC (International Football Club) to a draw earlier this summer, the GSSC lads netted no less than five second half goals at home, posting a win going away by a final score of 5-1. Glolabo “Emmanuel” George paced the attack with a hat trick with Gaddiel Appiah-Hagan and Zander Rimes adding one tally apiece.

On Sunday, it was again the final 45 that would allow the Sudbury squad to pull away, blowing open a 1-0 game against Thornhill SC by matching their Saturday effort and posting a 6-0 whitewashing over the visitors. Kofi Ghartney and Stephen Ademuyiwa found the back of the net twice each with teammates Malik Hussam Eddin and Zander Rimes also hitting the mark.

The U14 boys will be hosting games at Delki Dozzi Sports Complex Saturday at 3:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 p.m., with the U15 Impact girls taking to the pitch first on September 19th, going to battle at 1:00 p.m.

Congratulations also going out to the U16 Impact boys who closed out their summer by walking away with the hardware at the Roma Fall Classic Tournament in St Catharines. Needing a win in their final round robin game to advance to the championship final, the Sudbury lads delivered, eventually slipping past a very tough host team, St Catharines Roma Wolves 2-1 in the gold medal encounter on goals from Nathan Estriplet and Ilyias Sambo.

The remaining team awards doled out at the banquet were as follows:

Perseverance Awards
U18 i-Model Boys: Alessandro Moretta
U18 Tournament Boys: Brayden Sartor
U17/U18 Tournament Girls: Bella Massimiliano / Bryn Hobson
U17 i-Model Boys: Ben Lamarche
U16 i-Model Boys: Waylan Croome
U15 i-Model Girls: Kara Christine
U14 i-Model Boys: Stephen Ademuyiwa
U13 i-Model Boys: Charles Gough
U13 i-Model Girls: Tori Camilucci
U12 YRSL Boys: Sam Werbiski
U12 YRSL Girls: Ciara Hanley
U11 YRSL Boys: Mason Nolin
U11 YRSL Girls: Charlotte Belanger
U11 HDSL Boys: Grayson Quesnelle
U10 YRSL Boys: Sullivan Rome
U10 YRSL Girls: Evelyn Kilgour
U9 HDSL Boys: Alex O’Brien
U9 HDSL Girls: Winnie Croft
U8 HDSL Boys: Xavier Campbell
U8 HDSL Girls: Minnie Cooper

Leadership Awards
U18 i-Model Boys: Mishal Olanrewaju
U18 Tournament Boys: Reid Faux
U17/U18 Tournament Girls: Leticia Silva
U17 i-Model Boys: Gabriel Moreira
U16 i-Model Boys: Sebastian Gonzalez
U15 i-Model Girls: Alayna Marier-Mikus
U14 i-Model Boys: Marco Ponce
U13 i-Model Boys: Jason Nwankwo
U13 i-Model Girls: Kara Fletcher
U12 YRSL Boys: Nico Brujic
U12 YRSL Girls: Zanira Abdinasir
U11 YRSL Boys: Elliot Cropp
U11 YRSL Girls: Lyann Nzotungwanimana
U11 HDSL Boys: Finlay Gauld
U10 YRSL Boys: Parker Preyde
U10 YRSL Girls: Nya Strickland
U9 HDSL Boys: Zayden Sullivan
U9 HDSL Girls: Elsa Ghorbani
U8 HDSL Boys: Archie Gough
U8 HDSL Girls: Lucie Legault

Most Valuable Players
U18 i-Model Boys: Masimo Toffoli
U18 Tournament Boys: Isaac Contois-Ndlovu
U17/U18 Tournament Girls: JT Abou’ou Meka
U17 i-Model Boys: Wesley Forest
U16 i-Model Boys: Domadius Aziz
U15 i-Model Girls: Sierra Ranger
U14 i-Model Boys: Maximus Georgievski

Spirit Awards
U13 i-Model Boys: Kian Nazaripoor
U13 i-Model Girls: Angeline Ben-Anteur
U12 YRSL Boys: Juan Diego Cortes Lozano
U12 YRSL Girls: Rory Bulman
U11 YRSL Boys: Kael Perron
U11 YRSL Girls: Milena Frescura
U11 HDSL Boys: Ethan Hunt
U10 YRSL Boys: Marlon Estriplet
U10 YRSL Girls: Breana Palangio
U9 HDSL Boys: Xander Wright
U9 HDSL Girls: Katherine Bortolotti
U8 HDSL Boys: Carsten McNally
U8 HDSL Girls: Havana Jefferson

Remaining GSSC award winners included: Matthew Sartor (Impact Award); Dino Moretta, Doug Rosener and Matthew Sartor (GSSC Distinguished Service Awards); Veronica Paquette (Joe Davie Memorial Award)