Wolves pull out historic win
The St. Catharines Club Roma Wolves earned the most important victory in the history of the club Wednesday and they did it in the most dramatic of fashions.
The Wolves defeated Guelph United 2-1 on penalty kicks before a huge and enthusiastic crowd at Rinaldi Field to earn promotion next season to the Premier Division of League1.
“It means everything,” said Mark Bolton, Club Roma’s general manager of soccer operations, said while hundreds of fans celebrated with the players on the field. “This is unbelievable. What we’ve accomplished this year and what we’ve been able to do, they’ve blown my mind.
“Everything they’ve done for this club is unbelievable.”
The final score doesn’t begin to tell the full story of the victory.
The Wolves grabbed an early 1-0 lead at the 17-minute mark of the first half when Hungarian import Ronaldo Homenski scored.
St. Catharines, which was playing without several of their key players who were away at school, then did a solid job of holding off Guelph until Guelph scored with about one minute remaining in the six minutes of extra time added on by the officials.
That could have spelled the end for Roma, but the Wolves hung on through two 15-minute halves of overtime and then won the game on penalty kicks, outscoring Guelph 3-1.
Roma head coach Federico Turriziani was in tears on the field as he accepted congratulations from fans, players and others in the organization.
“It’s unbelievable. I can’t believe what happened tonight. This game, for them to score in the last minute of the second half — everybody thought it was over in extra time,” he said. “We were struggling for 10 minutes but I saw in the face of the players and the mentality that they wanted to keep going. Even with key players out, the players who were playing, they kept going to work the same way.
“I think we deserve this kind of night, This club, this city, I’ve very happy to be part of it.”
Wolves captain Luca Ragagnin said the club’s early struggles only made the win that much sweeter.
“It’s incredible. From the two years I spent here before and being in the bottom league and then we started off and we were last and we went on a streak to win nine out of 10 games to get promoted in the last game on penalties,” he said.
“What a story. We made history for League1.”
Ragagnin was proud the Wolves didn’t fold after giving up such a gut-wrenching goal.
“It stung in the moment but as leaders and old guys on this team we knew we had to change the mood right away and to believe right away and that’s what we did. We were able to battle through it and get the win,” he said.
Ragagnin said the support of the fans could not be understated.
“It’s incredible. Two years ago we played here and we had a rocky season, but now it just feels like the whole city is behind us every single game,” he said. “It’s incredible and hopefully we can just build on this.”
Davide Massafra, Roma’s Roma’s technical director of soccer, was all smiles afterward.
“I don’t feel my heart anymore, it jumped out of my chest,” he smiled. “They deserved the win. They had the energy and it was very challenging after they tied it up, but they didn’t give up.”
Massafra wanted to enjoy the moment before shifting gears to the challenge of playing in the Premier Division next season.
“It’s going to be a lot of planning and work, but tonight I’m going to focus on enjoying the party,” he said.
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