This past week our grade 6/7 boys won a silver medal at the 16-team National CAIS Soccer Tournament in Victoria. Collingwood played in a semifinal game vs. Upper Canada College (UCC) winning in dramatic fashion. Here is a summary of the game from Nicholas Allen, Wentworth's Athletic Director.
We played the first half going into the wind and allowed an unfortunate goal in the 24th minute right before half time. Down 0-1. At half time, Corbett and Pinguelo gave some wise words to the lads and reminded them we've been in this situation before and have fought back to win.
With the wind at our backs, we started to move forward and control the midfield. The constant pressure on the UCC defence finally got us a free kick from 30 yards out. Justin George aimed at the cross bar and struck it well but a gust a wind carried the ball and it skimmed the top of the bar. An unfortunate near miss.
We kept the pressure on and continued to win the one on one battles. A through ball was a little long and the UCC keeper picked it up. He went to throw it to his right midfield but ended up not getting enough on it and Rio Yassin was there to intercept the pass. He took a quick shot but it deflected off a UCC defender right to Rowan Short who took one dribble and put it past the keeper into the bottom left corner, in the 50th minute, right before the final whistle.
Off to overtime.
We came out firing and continued to control the play in the first of 2 10-minutes overtime halves. The pressure paid off with Chris Parker finishing off a nice cross from Angelo Zhu. 2-1 for Collingwood.
The 2nd half of OT put us into the wind. UCC needed a tying goal so they shifted their formation adding another forward. We took advantage with Angelo dribbling past 3 defenders and making no mistake on his shot past the keeper to give us the insurance goal. 3-1 Collingwood.
The final whistle blew a few minutes later and the boys jumped in joy.
The boys have played fantastic football all tournament and showed a lot of character and sportsmanship.
From the desk of Nicholas Allen.