Phoenix top Cyclones in overtime
Alexa Wall has impeccable timing.
The Grade 9 member of the St. Francis Phoenix girls soccer team went all season without scoring a goal until overtime of the SOSSA final Thursday against the E.L. Crossley Cyclones.
After netting the goal that gave the Phoenix a 2-1 victory in the Southern Ontario Secondary School Association AA championship game, the 14-year-old was mobbed by her screaming teammates.
“It was unbelievable,” the Club Roma travel player said. “I shot it and I didn’t even see it go in because everybody was crowding me.
“Everyone was screaming and so excited.”
St. Francis head coach Madison Maurice was happy to see Wall get rewarded for her efforts.
“She is so hard working and very versatile,” she said. “She has played outside back, she has played in the midfield and I kept her there.”
Maurice was as excited as her team watching the goal go in.
“Anything if possible if a team puts in the hard work and they come together as a team and I am so proud of them,” she said.
The SOSSA title might be a little ahead of schedule for the Phoenix.
“There is a ton of Grade 9s on our team, but our four seniors have been leading them,” Maurice said.
Those four seniors are Morgan Funk, Sydney MacNeil, Viktoria Cubelic and Carol Maximous.
“They are a big part of this team,” Maurice said.
Wall describes her team as a great group of girls.
“We all just work so well together and it’s awesome,” she said.
Wall would love to see her team continue to roll at OFSAA.
“We have to play the way we’ve been playing in SOSSA and zone and just work together as a team.”
St. Francis moved on to the SOSSA final with a 4-0 victory over McKinnon Park. Ella O’Connor netted a pair of goals for the Phoenix and Rylee Bolton and Maximous also scored. Cubelic recorded the shutout.
St. Francis went 4-1-2 in Niagara Catholic Athletic Association play before blanking Holy Cross in the NCAA Zone 4 AA rep game. The Phoenix then moved on to SOSSA by blanking Grimsby 1-0 in overall Zone 4 final.
Despite the loss, Crossley head coach Maria Di Santo was happy with her team’s performance at SOSSA.
“Overall, they played awesome,” she said. “There was lots of good teamwork and lots of communication and we did everything right, but we were just unlucky.”
It was a great end of the season run for the Cyclones.
“We are obviously disappointed that we are not going to OFSAA but we made it to SOSSA and we had a lot of upsets along the way. We defeated four teams that we should have lost to but it’s all good,” Di Santo said.
Editor’s note: After the publication of this story, BPSN learned SOSSA gets two berths at OFSAA and the Cyclones will be going to the provincial championships.
She is excited about the future of Crossley girls soccer.
“It is looking good because half of our team is in Grade 9 and 10.”
E.L. Crossley advanced to the SOSSA final with a 3-2 victory over Dundas Valley. Paige Clements scored twice for the Cyclones and Danya Rashid also scored.
Di Santo chose Clements as the Cyclones’ player of the game in the SOSSA final.
“She persevered. She got hurt and came back,” Di Santo said. “She set up a lot of great passes and a lot of great plays and worked really hard.”
After going 2-2 in regular season play, the Cyclones defeated Centennial 4-0 in the Niagara Region High School Athletic Association Zone 3 AA semifinals and blanked Greater Fort Erie 1-0 in the final. In the overall Zone 3 championship game, Crossley edged Saint Paul 1-0.
STATS PACK
Phoenix 2 Cyclones 1 (OT).
Mick and Angelo’s/Johnny Rocco’s Players of the Game: St. Francis’ Alexa Wall with the overtime winner and Crossley’s Paige Clements.
For the St. Francis Phoenix: Goals by Wall and Rachel Bufalino.
For the E.L. Crossley Cyclones: Goal by Kate Knafelc.
Up next: St. Francis advances to the OFSAA AA championships June 6-8 in Belle River.
