Sabres finish with CWOSSA AA soccer silver
- Chris Abbott
- Jun 4
- 4 min read
Chris Abbott
Editor
The top two Brant-Haldimand-Norfolk South Division AA boys soccer teams went head-to-head in the CWOSSA semifinals May 29 in Brantford.
Simcoe Composite School Sabres defeated the Holy Trinity Catholic High School Titans 3-1 on a fast, slippery synthetic turf at the Bisons Alumni North Park Sports Complex.
Both teams scored on penalty shots – SCS took a 1-0 first-half lead (Ben Fitzgerald), then Holy Trinity tied it in the second half (Evan Bradacs).
“They (Holy Trinity) took me down in the box, and I let our best penalty taker – Evan – take it,” said Sabres’ ‘finisher’ Wyatt Cowan. “I knew he was going to score.”
“We had a very quick breakdown, a through ball went to Wyatt (Cowan) and he got taken down in the box,” said Holy Trinity coach Vince Suglio. “Caught us off-guard and… it is what it is.”
The Sabres regained the lead with 17 minutes left to play on a Cowan rebound goal.
“It was a cross (from Andrew Fekete via Miguel Ferreira), the goalie missed it a little bit,” said Cowan. “It bounced off my chest and I volleyed it mid-air. Top bin. It was right there for me, I couldn’t miss… I missed one the other game and I had to score that one.”
Simcoe Composite added insurance with five minutes remaining on a corner kick.
“It was a perfect corner kick – right to me in the box,” said Cowan, who jumped up to head home his second of the day. “He placed it right on my head and I finished ‘er.”
With the 3-1 semifinal victory, Simcoe Composite advanced to the CWOSSA AA finals against Glenview Park later that afternoon. The Cambridge school won 3-2, scoring a late winner. SCS left with CWOSSA silver.
“We had a rivalry with HT all year,” said Cowan, “and we’ve been lucky to beat them. Well, not luck because we put in the work. We knew we had the one-up on them, we knew they would come in strong.”
Simcoe Composite and Holy Trinity had battled to a three-way tie for first in the Brant-Haldimand-Norfolk regular season with Waterford. SCS had edged HT in a penalty shootout to win the South Division championship.
Suglio praised the Titans for their two-day CWOSSA performances, noting some HT soccer players had also played in Monday’s CWOSSA rugby championship on a team that qualified for OFSSA.
“We played awesome - we played fantastic football on Tuesday. And we played fantastic football for the first half (Thursday), 100 per cent. We controlled the entire first half of this (semifinal) game… had multiple chances to score, didn’t finish. It’s kind of been the story of our season all year – we dominate possession and just can’t get it in the final third.
“We had three really good chances inside the box, didn’t hit the net,” Suglio added. “Hit a crossbar early in the second half. The difference in the game was SCS capitalized on their chances and we didn’t. The entire first half was in their end… aside from the PK.
“Credit to them, they (SCS) played well defensively. It could have been a different story if we put our first-half chances in the back of the net.”
The Sabres pushed back in the second half, and trailing 2-1 late in the game, the Titans were starting to force passes looking for the equalizer.
“I think it’s one of those things, when you keep losing to the same team it kind of gets in your head,” said Suglio. “Just like the Leafs.
“But I am proud of the way we played, and I would say the first 40 minutes we played here today was our best 40 minutes we played all season, start to finish. The ball just didn’t go in the back of the net for us.”
CWOSSA PRELIMINARY ROUND
In Pool B action on Tuesday, May 27, Holy Trinity shut out Our Lady of Lourdes 2-0. Cooper Carter and Fitzgerald scored for the Titans. Holy Trinity tied Saugeen District (SDSS) 1-1 with a goal from Carter. The Titans concluded the preliminary round shutting out Centre Dufferin 3-0. Carter, Nolan Da Silva, and Jordan Pacheco scored.
Holy Trinity finished first in the Pool B standings with a 2-1-0 record.
In Pool A, Simcoe Composite started the preliminary round with a 3-0 loss to Glenview Park. The Sabres rebounded with a 1-1 tie against Sacred Heart (Bradacs) and a vital 4-1 win over St. David. F. Porteous-Smith scored and Bradacs notched a hat trick in a must-win SCS game.
Tied with Sacred Heart in A Pool standings, Simcoe Composite earned second place based on goal differential.
The top two teams in each pool advanced to semifinals.
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Waterford District High School won CWOSSA A boys soccer silver medals. Waterford won Pool B on goal differential. The Wolves won their semifinal, but Woodland Christian blanked Waterford 3-0 in the championship final.
Waterford’s Travis Geerts won the CWOSSA A ‘golden boot’ with four goals. Wolves’ Will Harvey tied for second with three goals.
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