The Horizon Aigles' girls soccer team established a little history one year ago, claiming the SDSSAA Girls Open Premier title for the first time ever with a win in the final over the Collège Notre-Dame Alouettes.
Come Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. at the James Jerome Sports Complex, the Aigles will have a chance to repeat, battling the St Charles College Cardinals this time around. That contest will be preceded by the senior boys final, a rematch of the 2022 showdown between St Charles and Lo-Ellen while the junior Knights look to close off an incredible season in style, playing their gold medal affair at 7:00 p.m. opposite the Cards as well.
While the Aigles were recognized for the outstanding offense all season, it was not necessarily the usual suspects who made the highlight reels on Friday. A pair of perfectly executed headers off set corner kicks were delivered by both Olivia Hinich and Emily Winsor, both goals set up by a spot-on delivery from Laurentian Voyageurs' 2023-2024 commit Kiana Levac.
The second half goals provided the margin of victory in a 2-0 win over the Bishop Carter Gators, a score that might have been a little worse if Kiara Levac had not been a tad unlucky, bouncing a pair of shots off the BAC crossbar.
The final game of the day remained closer though St Charles appeared ready to close out the Lo-Ellen Park Knights much earlier in a match-up that finished with the scoreboard reading 1-0 in favour of the Cardinals.
The only goal would come in the seventh minute of play as SCC veteran Erika MacNeil corralled a loose ball in the box and calmly slid it into the corner of the net, with the Cardinals pressing to increase their lead through much of the remainder of the opening half.
The final forty was far more evenly contested as St Charles' keeper Zoe Rienguette had to be on her toes with the Knights taking advantage of a decent though not extreme wind at their back to balance out the play in the second half.
The Cardinals' boys left little to chance in their early battle with the Confederation Chargers, scoring three times in the opening ten minutes and settling into a 5-1 victory as Manzo Shimizu buried the hat trick.
Nathan Cranston and Blake Rosener also scored for the scarlet and grey while Curtis Cunningham countered with the only strike for the Chargers.
Again, game two proved to be far more interesting as the Lo-Ellen Park Knights and St Benedict Bears sat deadlocked in a scoreless tie at the half.
It would take a beauty of a marker to break the ice as a cross from Maliq Olanrewaju would lead Ousama Qarquouz perfectly, the latter drilling a header into the back of the net.
Moments later, Olanrewaju doubled the Knights' lead, with the game appearing safely in hand until a St Benedict corner with roughly ten minutes to play allowed Christian Thamby to find the always dangerous Paolo Grossi in the box, the striker cutting the deficit in half and setting up a final few minutes of play that was by far the most frantic of the encounter.
The goal was one of the very few times that Grossi would break free from the shadow of Matheus Sousa, the young man whose task was the mark the gifted goal scorer. Truth be told, the performance of Sousa likely had as much to do with the Lo-Ellen win as anything that occured at the opposite end of the turf.
"Paolo is a very, very strong player; I think he has an advantage with his physicality," said Sousa. "The key is to not let the ball through you, don't let the ball get through to him."
"You have to be careful of not letting the ball get past you because then it's a pace match," added the older brother to gifted midfielder Andre Sousa, the more senior of the two preparing to celebrate his 18th birthday next week.
"I think my pace is something I can match up against Paolo, but physicality, I certainly couldn't. I thought I did a good job, although it wasn't perfect. I had some mistakes."
The task that now awaits Sousa is likely even more difficult as St Charles can throw a far wider spectrum of weapons on the attack in the direction of the Knights come Tuesday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.
"They (SCC) have a lot of technical ability; they have the most amount of players from the GSSC (Greater Sudbury Soccer Club)," explained Sousa. "I've been privileged enough to play for GSSC for two years now so I know most of their players."
"A challenge for us is their ability to position themselves correctly around the pitch and make those one-two's, one-two's - but we're up for the challenge. We'll go in head on and try and beat them."
