Knights looking for breakthrough
The Niagara Knights men’s soccer program is headed to George Brown College for their fourth straight appearance in the OCAA Championships.
The Knights won its divisional cross-over game 2-1 thanks to a late goal by veteran Alex Latham of Welland, and will take on the Humber Hawks, who are 7-1-2, and finished first in the OCAA Central, in the first round of the playoff tournament hosted by George Brown College of Toronto this afternoon.
The Humber program has medalled in eight straight tournaments and won it all in six of those eight. Niagara has a 7-2-1 record and was second in the OCAA West.
Despite making four straight appearances in the OCAA Championships, the Knights best finish has been a loss in the bronze medal match in each of the past two seasons.
Knights head coach Frank DeChellis has high expectations for this year’s team with its playoff experience.
“Our program has matured to the point where reaching the final eight and having players recognized league-wide is our expectation,” said DeChellis. “We
always improve our understanding of the kind of soccer we need to play to achieve at this level and the types of players we need to have on our team. Our core of leaders is better than it’s ever been and that is an important component of any team hoping to succeed.”
Niagara will look to match Humber’s high-flying offence which scored 34 goals in the regular season.
The Knights offence was strong all season long as well, especially when they were able to feed the ball to their star rookie Oti Frigole of St. Catharines.
In 10 regular season games this season, Frigole scored 11 goals, smashing the program’s singleseason goal record of eight. In the divisional cross-over game against the Seneca Sting, Frigole scored in the sixth minute to open the scoring, his 12th overall goal of the season
“Our first game at the OCAAs is always challenging and we’ve had success in the quarter-final match in the past,” said DeChellis. “Our attitude is simple; respect everybody and fear nobody.”
If the Knights ground the Hawks, the team that defeated them in the bronze medal match a year ago, they will advance to the OCAA semifinal and take on the winner of the Fanshawe Falcons (9-0-1, first OCAA West) and the U of T Mississauga Eagles (2-6-2, fourth OCAA Central).
The other side of the bracket sees the Algonquin Thunder (7-1-2, second OCAA East) take on the George Brown Huskies (5-1-4, third OCAA Central) and the Durham Lords (6-0-4, second OCAA East) against the Sheridan Bruins (5-0-5,second OCAA Central) in quarter-final matchups.
The OCAA champion and runner-up advances to the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association men’s Soccer National Championship in Charlottetown, P.E.I., from Nov. 7-10.