While local men's soccer front-runners S.C. Italia and the Italia Flyers have met on several occasions this summer, it's unlikely many other games carried the same meaning as the final of the Milan Vrab Memorial Tournament hosted Monday night at Queen's Athletic Field.

Former Sudbury Athletic Rich Campbell capitalized on a rebound off Matt Bolton's breakaway effort midway through the second half and veteran Brian Coufal supplied outstanding netminding as S.C. Italia continued to hold the upper hand over their Premier division rivals, recording a 1-0 win in the final. During the trophy presentation, Coufal explained to his young daughter that having served on the soccer board with Milan Vrab almost 18 years ago, that "tonight's game was definately more important than most games."

"At the half, (coach) Walter Michelutti explained the significance of the trophy we were playing for" noted Campbell, who said he simply followed up the original shot and buried his head to drive the game-winner to the back of the net. "This year, it just seems that the bounces have gone our way quite often against these guys" said Campbell. "Well, and we also have a pretty good team" he added quickly.

Claudette Vrab, whose late husband's memory is honoured with the in-league tournament trophy, was on hand for the end of game presentation, joining a large number of family members enjoying the tightly contested final. In fact, son Michael was a member of the Corsi Construction team that captured the previously-named Frood Hotel Cup in 1992. Milan Vrab had been involved in a wide variety of soccer related roles, including being a key member of the Sudbury Hawks soccer organization.

S.C. Italia would enjoy a banner evening as the First Division squad, paced by a two-goal effort from Rick Ratchford, dropped the Sudbury Athletic Soccer Club 4-1 in the final of the Dieder Alisat Memorial Tournament. Anthony Rocca and Devin Desjardins added the remaining goals for the winners with Stephane Legrand replying in a losing cause for the Athletic.

With many of the youth soccer teams having completed their season, men's soccer concludes locally with the Dagostino Cup (formerly Charity Cup) as well as the league finals set for next week.