Oct. 24 Niagara College report: Women’s soccer advances to OCAA championships
The Niagara College Knights women’s soccer team is heading to the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association championships at Durham College this week thanks to a 6-0 victory over the George Brown Huskies in last week’s East-West crossover match.
Sydney Sica scored the first four goals of the game for the Knights before first-year forward Tori Hultink and Rylan Greatrix completed the scoring. Sierra Naccarato recorded the shutout for Niagara.
Niagara’s will play Algonquin College Thursday at 10 a.m. in the quarter-finals. Algonquin qualified for the championships with a 2-1 victory over Fanshawe. The semifinals will be played Saturday and the medal-round games will be staged Sunday.
Niagara head coach Rob Lalama wasn’t convinced his team would be returning to the OCAA championships at the start of the season.
“Overall I would say that I wasn’t as confident as last season,” he said.
His lack of certainty was based on the fact that two first team all-stars from the 2021 season, Terin Hultink and Ashley Altamirano, changed their mind and decided they weren’t going to play in 2022 after graduating.
Several things went right to land the Knights back at the provincial championships.
“Certain players took it to another level. Captain Sydney Sica and centre back McKenna Jackson have been outstanding every game. Most of the rookies came in and performed well, including Tori (Hultink) who is a starter now,” Lalama said. “We had a new addition to our back four which was A’nya Perry and she has been a pleasant addition. She is a really nice player and solidified our back line. And Alyssa Arcand was an all-star and after about four or five games, she started to show the all-star form she showed the year before. That has been a big difference.”
Lalama’s team will need to pay attention to a number of areas in order to have success at the championships.
“We need to play to our potential first and foremost,” he said. “We need to defend effectively with lots of pressure all over the field and when we do have the ball, we have to move it quickly and effectively to create some scoring opportunities.”
MEN’S SOCCER
Niagara College’s men’s soccer team saw its season come to an end with a 2-1 loss against the George Brown Huskies in its crossover match.
In a bizarre series of events, Niagara ended up in sixth place with a 3-7 record after several teams declared ineligible players from the regular season.
Niagara’s fortunes got off to a poor start when Simon Silverio was ejected at the 22-minute mark for dangerous play. The Huskies built a 2-0 lead in the first half before Isaac DeWaard got the Knights on the board. Neither team scored in the second half.
“Losing 2-1 to the province’s No. 4 team on two penalty kicks just hurts,” Niagara head coach Frank DeChellis said. “We got a little emotional when Simon was dismissed. Watching the video later, the call was wrong, but the ref does not have the benefit of rewatching a video 10 times and in slow motion.”
DeChellis felt his team grew this past season and the final game was a continuation of that.
“What I saw our guys do with 10 players blew me away. This week we only made two tactical changes and focused on reinforcing principles and philosophies and the guys brought that to tonight’s match and did it short a player for 70 minutes.”
Knights keeper Vinson Notarianni played brilliantly, facing 27 shots and allowing only penalty kick goals.
“Vinny’s performance was top level tonight. Every player on both teams acknowledged his performance after the match,” DeChellis. “He was fearless, very technical and made great decisions all night. As the year progressed his composure was more and more evident. He should be proud of his progress.”
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
Niagara’s men’s volleyball team opened the regular season in impressive fashion by recording a 3-1 road victory over the Humber Hawks and ending the Hawk’s 30-game regular season winning streak.
Niagara knocked off last year’s OCAA champions by scores of 25-23,25-23,23-25 and 25-23.
First-year head coach and former Knights setter Steve Stone was thrilled with the win.
“It feels good to come in to my first regular-season game at the helm and come away with a victory,” he said. “I think I’m going to need a hot lemon water for my throat. The boys came ready to play from the get go. Our team executed the game plan the whole night and made the appropriate adjustments when needed.”
The Knights are at Conestoga Sunday.
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
Niagara’s women’s volleyball team fell 3-0 to the Humber Hawks in its season opener.
Scores were 17-25, 14-25 and 22-25.
Niagara is at Conestoga Sunday.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Niagara’s men’s basketball team opened its season with a 80-56 victory over the Canadore Panthers at the Welland Campus Centre.
“It was nice to get our first win of the regular season,” Niagara head coach Phil Mosley said. “We defended well but need to continue to work on our consistency on offence and in transition.”
Leading the way for the Knights were: second-year guard Reggie Williams with 20 points; rookie Khayden Stewart with 16 points; and, veteran Delroy Grandison with 11 points and 18 rebounds.
Niagara hosts Sheridan Saturday at 8 p.m. in Welland.
