Thunder blank DM for Zone 4 championship
Jonah Boria likes to be in control.
The 16-year-old, Grade 11 student is the captain of the Blessed Trinity Thunder boys soccer team for a reason.
The centre-back has no qualms about taking control on and off the field in an attempt to get the best out of himself and his teammates.
Boria turned in an outstanding effort Thursday as the Thunder blanked the Denis Morris Reds 2-0 for the Niagara Catholic Athletic Association Zone 4 senior boys high school soccer championship held at Alumni Field at Brock.
The Thunder now advance to the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (SOSSA) AAA playdowns next week at A.N. Myer.
“I feel like I’m a natural leader so I’m not afraid to talk or speak what I have to say. Whatever it is I have to say, I will say it,” the Grimsby native said confidently. “I’ll lead a team no matter who I’m with. I’ll take guys to where I need to.”
The spotlight obviously doesn’t bother Boria.
“I enjoy pressure. I’ve played with pressure my entire life. I’ve played a (year) up my entire life so it’s nothing new to me.”
Thunder coach Sal Piazza gushed with praise when asked about Boria.
“He’s mature beyond his years. He’s been doing that for us for a couple of years now. He likes to direct traffic back there and he makes great decisions, fantastic decisions,” Piazza said.
Piazza and fellow BT coach Mike Minicucci give Boria the latitude to run the defence as he sees fit.
“It’s like having a third coach and he’s on the field,” Piazza said. “He’s like a player-coach and we give him the freedom to do that. We want him to do that.
“He can see back there what’s going on that we can’t see from the side here. We like when he communicates with our players.”
The Thunder jumped out to an early lead on goals by Ricardo Dedeus and Jordon McNally to take a 2-0 lead in the first half.
“It was nice to get the lead. It definitely made us calm down a little bit,” said Boris, who is slated to play junior B hockey for the St. Catharines Falcons next season. “We said to the guys to play smart and not go into stupid challenges. Just play our game, play defensive, and we’ll be fine and get out of this.”
Piazza said the game plan was to try and keep things going in the second half.
“We talked about changing the line up to drop back a bit but we kept pretty much the same lineup. About halfway through the second half Jonah said we needed to drop back. He felt they were sort of over-playing us on that side of the field so we did make a small change.
“We didn’t want to make a drastic change and lose the momentum.”
DM coach Antony Volante lamented his team’s lack of finish around the net early.
“We had chances. If one of those goes in, it gives you that extra boost and they’re more on their heels, but it didn’t happen today,” Volante said.
“The two early goals (against) were tough but the second half we played really well. We did what we had to do in the second half. We got a bunch of scrambles in the box and nothing bounced our way. I was happy with the way we finished.”
Thunder 2 Reds 0
BPSN Star of the Game: BT sweeper Jonah Boria with a solid overall game.
Blessed Trinity Thunder: Ricardo Dedeus, Jordon McNally. Shutout by Hunter Oakley.
Denis Morris Reds: No scoring.
Up next: The Thunder advance to the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (SOSSA) AAA playdowns next week at A.N. Myer.
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