The Algonquin Thunder men’s soccer team has qualified for the CCAA national championship in Fort McMurray, Alberta after a second place finish at the OCAA championship.
The OCAA provincials were held in Hamilton at Redeemer University College on Oct. 27-29.
Almost every player on Algonquin’s men’s soccer team took off their silver medal the moment they got it alongside others who just sat in the field watching in disappointment after they dropped the gold medal game to rival Humber Hawks 4-0.
“We’re disappointed, we want to win everything,” said assistant coach Loui Legakis after their loss to Humber.
“But the good thing is we have nationals in about a week and we just have to rebound.”
Thunder manager Jordan Pagani also echoed the expectations going into the gold medal game.
“It is definitely relieving that we have that birth in nationals,” said Pagani on Oct. 28, after their semi-final match. “But no one wants to go into nationals second place.”
But Legakis believed that the Thunder still played a good game and just lost momentum.
“I was happy how the guys came out,” said Legakis. “We had the ball, we had possession, we had Humber on their heels a bit but they fought back like the champs that they are. We got a penalty, they scored, and momentum changed from there.”
In order to get to the gold medal game and qualify for the CCAA championship, the Thunder had to win the first two rounds of provincials.
Algonquin defeated the Niagara Knights 3-0 on Oct. 28 in the semi-final which would punch their plane ticket to Fort McMurray.
Marco Natoli, who won the OCAA east division scoring title lead the Thunder with two goals in the 68th and 81st minutes of the game.
Jemual Paul was the other goal scorer for Algonquin with his second of the tournament, opening the lead 56 minutes into the game.
Toni El-Asmar said that Niagara tried to stay with them the whole game but come second half Algonquin pulled away.
“First half we had a couple of turnovers we didn’t like,” said El-Asmar after their win versus Niagara. “It’s not jitters, we are a confident team. I feel like sometimes the first 20 minutes, teams come with a lot of energy and try to stay with us. But it’s impossible to keep that work rate. So they tried to stay with us but once you hit the 40th minute 45th, they just dropped down and we took over the game. The second half was much better.”
Thunder goalkeeper Dylan Tessier was named player of the game and put on a show making critical saves for Algonquin.
“He stood on his head for us when the chips were down,” said Pagani. “He made the saves we need him to make. We’ve kept the first two games down to one goal so we are happy with him.
“All season, him and Thomas Hatch have been back and forth a 1A and 1B situation,” said El-Asmar. “Tess stepped up at the right time and we said ‘hey you’re the man, lead us’ and the first two games he’s made some incredible saves, breakaway saves, came up big, he’s a confident boy back there and we believe in him there.”
Tessier was named to the east division all-star team alongside teammates Natoli, Yusef Dasir, Alex Asmis, Anthony Legendre, and Maher Hudseini.
Algonquin also defeated the Fanshawe Falcons in their first tournament matchup by a score of 2-1 with Paul and Andres Sanchez scoring the goals.