Mustangs gallop to AAA title
The Saint Michael Catholic High School Mustangs went undefeated to capture the senior boys AAA soccer championship at the 10th Annual Niagara Cup held at Youngs Sportsplex in Welland.
The Mustangs topped Assumption from Brantford 4-0 in the championship final after defeating Saint Francis in penalty kicks, Ursuline College of Chatham 2-1 and St. Marys 2-1.
Most valuable player Ronaldo Homenski paced the winners with two goals while Jake Salvatore and Marco Panuto also scored.
Saint Mike’s head coach Pat Ricci said the championship came at a good time for his squad.
“The confidence is quite significant,” he said. “It’s nice for St. Mike’s to win something lately. We’re working really hard, doing a lot of things behind the scenes, and it’s been awhile since we’ve won something of significance with 16 teams or 10 teams or a big game. Even though we went to OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) last year, it’s been a long time since these guys can really see the value in practising four days a week and buying into commitment and working hard.
“This was a feel-good tournament for everybody.”
Ricci was able to walk the fine line between competing and getting players some game action.
“I consider both. I want players to get playing time so I can see them in different positions and different systems. I want to give everyone a chance. We keep a roster of 20 for a reason and there are some young guys on the team that would really benefit from some playing time but it’s hard to get them into some matches that might be short in nature in terms of 20-minute halves or a league conference game where those points are pretty necessary.
“I don’t want them to necessarily go in with the mindset we’re just going to play our bench and we’re going to lose. If we’re going to play our bench, we’re going to try and still win and that’s exactly how it played out. I started a lot of our younger guys or who guys haven’t been playing a lot and they held their own, they were doing very well.”
Other members of the winning team are: Angelo Butera, Luka Dermott, Lucas Dobson, Roshane Fraser, Dakotah Johnstone, Nicholas Karagiannis, Andrew Karagiannis, Issac Lennox, Matthew Lim, Alejandro Madrid Bozo, Maximiliano Marinas, Henrique Orosco, Ethan Perri, Juan Pino Ayala, Shawm Salonen, Joshua Salonen, Nathan Selman.
In the senior girls AAA championship final Holy Names from Windsor beat Notre Dame 2-0 to repeat as back-to-back champions. Holy Names captured the OFSAA AAA championship last year.
Notre Dame topped Blessed Trinity 3-1 in the junior boys final.
Jayson Hassan, Jack Cargnelli and Fisal Alhamoud were the goal scorers.
Hassan was named the most valuable player in the final game while Julian Belcastro was tournament MVP.
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