Although they didn’t quite put together the complete 90-minute performance they always strive for, a trio of goals in the first half hour was more than enough to propel the Sheridan Bruins men’s soccer team (7-1-1 OCAA) to a 4-1 quarter-final victory over St. Lawrence College.
“We played alright. We started off really strong early on, but after that and in particular in the second half, we kind of struggled,” said Bruins head coach Andrew Seuradge. “I don’t know if it was because of the wind or if the boys just thought the game was over, but we held them off the scoresheet for most of the game and got the result, so that’s the important part at this time of year.”
Sheridan’s David Velastegui got the team off to the early start, curling a free kick from just outside the area past the St. Lawrence keeper.
Three minutes later Molham Babouli from Sheridan was able to tack on a second one, while Khody Ellis and Raheem Edwards rounded out the scoring for the Double-Blue.
St. Lawrence was able to pull one back late on a Gabe Jones goal, but it proved to be too little and too late.
The Bruins will move on to the OCAA Championship tournament hosted by Niagara and face the East Division’s top squad during the regular season, Algonquin, in the semi final.
Seuradge says his side has a tremendous belief in their abilities, but that they also understand the dangers that the East Division champions can offer. “We know they’re a really high quality team, but when you get to this stage of the season you’re always expecting to play high quality opponents,” he said. “We’ll try to focus on doing what we do, and maybe take the time this week to focus on some detail things.”
If the Bruins win their semi-final game on Friday at 11 a.m., the championship game will take place at 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 25 at the Youngs SportsPlex in Welland. Live-streaming of OCAA games is available at http://ocaatv.com/.
Photo by Ryan Kelly