Thunder off to OFSAA
The Blessed Trinity Thunder wrote themselves into the record book Thursday.
The Thunder defeated the A.N. Myer Marauders 2-0 to capture the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (SOSSA) senior boys AAA soccer championship for the first time in school history.
The championship qualifies the Thunder for the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSSA) playdowns in Windsor, which is also a first for the Grimsby school in boys soccer.
“It feels amazing, especially because it’s my second year in high school and it feels good to help all the Grade 12s make it,” BT striker Santiago Vasquez said. “It’s an honour.”
Vasquez, a 16-year-old, Grade 10 student, said the Thunder are thrilled to be heading to the Ontario championships.
“Since it’s our first time and we made history, it’s amazing,” he said. “All of us wanted to go. All of us had the passion to go to OFSAA and the right mindset.”
BT coach Mike Minicucci is elated for the school.
“It’s extremely exciting,” he said. “We’re had our opportunities in the past but unfortunately it never materialized.
“We have a really good squad, very good mix of 9s, 10s, 11s and 12s and they play for each other, treat each other like a family and it worked out well.”
Vasquez set the tone early for the Thunder, scoring off a rebound following a missed penalty kick just three minutes into the game.
“I saw Ryan (Smukavic) go all way to the right so I decided to stay back a little bit. I saw him come back and knew it was coming toward me and I knew it was my moment and I had to finish it,” Vasquez said.
The Thunder then made it 2-0 a few minutes later on a goal by Romero Nicolazzo and the Marauders never recovered.
“A PK (penalty kick) three minutes into the game is tough to rebound from in a game where you’re tired fast,” Myer coach J.P. Verrucci said. “These kids are playing 160 minutes so it’s tough to rebound and we just couldn’t climb that hill today.”
The Thunder went 3-3-1 in the regular season but hit their stride at the right time.
“The three losses were not for any other reason than bad decision making. We were in every game from beginning to end,” Minicucci said.
The loss was the first for the Marauders this season after seven straight wins.
“We don’t set expectations here, we set standards and we feel if reach those standards we have a really good chance. Thought we had a chance, but we just couldn’t finish,” Verrucci said.
Minicucci is well aware the Thunder will be in tough at OFSSA.
“To be truthful, it’s not going to be an easy battle,” he said. “We’re going to be grouped with schools that are much, much bigger than us. It will be challenging but it’s a learning experience for all of us, including myself.”
The Thunder topped Westdale from Hamilton 2-1 in the morning semifinal on goals by Nicolazzo and Smukavic.
The Marauders doubled the Eden Flyers 4-2 in their semifinal on goals by Sean Lawson, Alessio Pingue, Jason Christie and Ryder Mottola.
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