Knights remain alive for bronze
For the second time in as many days at the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association men’s soccer championships, the best from the west was no match for one beast from the east.
On Friday it was the Niagara Knights’ turn to leave the pitch watching the Durham Lords celebrating a victory, this time by a 1-0 score.
“We played so well the first half, dealing with a strong headwind and keeping Durham quiet,” Niagara head coach Frank DeChellis said. “The mood in the changeroom at half and having the wind behind us made me feel things would go our way but that didn’t happen.
“We were slow in developing any flow the second half and didn’t really wake up until they scored.
“We had several goal-mouth scrambles in front of their goal with no positive results. It was frustrating, to say the least.”
DeChellis said no one on the Knights turned in a “bad performance.
“Durham found a way to get in front of our shots and crosses and that made the difference in the second half,” he said. “After they scored, they sunk into their own end and set up a wall that we didn’t penetrate.”
In Thursday’s quarter-final round, Durham, 6-3-1, second in the east; scored a 2-1 victory over the Fanshawe Falcons, 8-0-2, the top seed from the west division.
Niagara finished league play second on the west with a 6-2-2 record, two points behind Fanshawe.
A goal 71 minutes into the semifinal match was all the offence the Lords needed versus the Knights to advance to the gold medal game at eight-team tournament hosted by Fleming College in Peterborough.
DeChellis said he felt “heartbroken” for the coaches and the players after Niagara lost in the semifinal round at provincials for the second year in a row.
“They worked hard, played well all year and the stars were aligned for a berth at nationals,” he said. “They will put everything in perspective soon and realize their lives aren’t so bad, but for today it sucks.”
The disappointing loss doesn’t necessarily doom Niagara to return home to Welland emptyhanded. A victory over the loser of the semifinal between the Algonquin Thunder and the Humber Hawks in Saturday’s third-game final would give the Knights the bronze medal.
DeChellis said the Knights will have to put the loss to Durham behind them if they want to win the first medal in the program’s history.
“Regardless of how we feel, we have to play tomorrow and we need to want to win a bronze medal,” he said. “Losing is not fun, but the sun comes up tomorrow and there will be field and an opponent waiting for us at noon.
“We owe it to ourselves and our stakeholders to compete.”
At last year’s OCAA championships Niagara lost to the George Brown Huskies in the bronze medal game.
This year the Knights were able to exact some revenge as the Huskies were the team they eliminated from medal contention with a 3-2 victory in Thursday’s quarter-final round.