Eagles fend off another challenge
— The St. Mary’s Eagles are making a habit of winning close games.
Andrew Ribeiro scored in the 75th minute Monday afternoon to lead the defending District 8 senior boys soccer league champions to a 1-0 victory over the Monsignor Doyle Mustangs at RIM Park. The Eagles improved to 3-0 on the season, with all three games being decided by a single goal, and the Mustangs fell to 0-1-1.
“We want to finish first, that’s one of our goals, but I’m not going to lie, it’s a pretty tough league,” said Ribeiro, who was part of the Eagles team that defeated the St. Benedict Saints in last year’s D8 final. “They (Monsignor Doyle) played hard, St. David and St. Benedict will be tough, and that game against Rez (a 1-0 victory Friday), I played centre back and that was the hardest game of my life.”
St. Mary’s goalkeeper Sami Moussa and his Monsignor Doyle counterpart, Brandon Tasker, both turned in strong performances in a game that was well on its way to a scoreless draw until Ribeiro broke the deadlock. The attacking midfielder split the Monsignor Doyle defence and placed a low, hard blast past Tasker from about 10 yards out.
The Mustangs picked up the pace after Ribeiro’s tally and came within inches of tying the game when Eric Leite blasted a shot off the crossbar with two minutes to play.
Monsignor Doyle, which played to a 2-2 draw with Père-René-de-Galinée in its first outing, was solid at the back and received strong outings from Jordan Bowman, Gurkharn Sahota, Tyler Oliveria and Caleb Figueiredo, who was playing his first game in more than two years.
A former rep player in Cambridge, Figueiredo suffered a serious hip injury while participating in track and field two years ago and is making a return to soccer.
“I was a little bit out of my element today but I love the competition, I live for it,” said Figueiredo.
“Our spirits dropped after they scored and we had to change the way we were playing … it was a tough loss … lots of chirping back and forth.”
Midfielder Brayden DeRose turned in a strong performance for the Eagles, as did central defender Lukas Cimermancic.
Andres Moreno, another key defender, missed the game with an injury.
In another game, the St. David Celtics and Woodland Cavaliers played to a 1-1 draw.
Manolo Flamenco-Steiner scored for St. David (2-0-1) and Chris Chae replied for Woodland (0-1-1).
The St. Benedict Saints (0-2) faced Père-René-de-Galinée Chevaliers (0-1-1) in another game.
St. Mary’s, Resurrection (1-1) and St. Benedict are attempting to earn the D8 berth at the Central Western Ontario (CWOSSA) triple-A tournament, Monsignor Doyle and St. David are aiming for a spot at the double-event, while Père-René-de-Galinée and Woodland are trying to advance at the single-A level.
St. Benedict’s winless start is a bit misleading as the Saints lost a pair of 1-0 games to St. David and Resurrection that could have gone either way.