Thunder advance to OFSAA
The Blessed Trinity Thunder punched their ticket to OFSAA with a pair of wins at the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (SOSSA) senior girls AAA soccer playdowns in Grimsby.
The Thunder qualified for the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championships with a 1-0 win over the A.N. Myer Marauders in the final and a 5-3 triumph over Westmount of Hamilton in the semifinals.
It is the third straight year the Thunder have qualified for OFSAA after winning a gold medal in 2013.
“Everyone’s goal would be to get to OFSAA and that’s one of the goals we put forth at the beginning of the year,” BT head coach Joe Pagnotta said. “Our goal was beyond SOSSA.”
The Thunder defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to advance to SOSSA but Pagnotta wasn’t overly happy with the effort and decided to make a change in strategy.
“I took a little bit of a different approach in my coaching style,” he said. “Maybe it’s me sometimes and I just wanted to pull back a little bit and see if they could figure it out and they played a little more lax, even though the pressure was on.
“They performed and got the job done.”
Jada McLaren had two goals in the semifinal while Cassandra Chiarella, Mya Demirbas and Sandra Jazvac added singles.
The Thunder led 3-1 at the half and extended their lead to 5-2 early in the second half.
“We popped two quick ones which was great for us, especially having to play a game in a short turnaround,” Pagnotta said. “It allowed everyone an opportunity to play. It’s not easy with a roster of 20. It was nice to have all the girls play in a meaningful game like that.”
The final was a physical tussle with the Marauders.
“A lot of respect goes out to Myer,” Pagnotta said. “I thought they played us hard. Our girls are a very physical team as well and we were up for that challenge.
“I thought Myer looked very good. We beat them last year and that team was extremely improved from last year’s team.”
McLaren scored the winner when she redirected a free kick about halfway through the second half.
Pagnotta is eager to see how the Thunder fare at OFSAA, which will be held June 6-8 in Windsor.
“Now the ultimate prize for any team going to OFSAA . . . obviously no one has a chance unless they get there and we got there,” Pagnotta said. “I know we’re good.”
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