Staff
The Muskie boys’ soccer team made serious strides at the all-Ontarios in Hamilton last week but fell short of its goal of a quarter-final berth.
After tying their opening two games on Thursday against Courtice Secondary School (0-0) and E.S. Theriault (1-1), the Muskies lost 2-1 to St. Joseph’s in their Friday morning game—setting the stage for a win-or-go-home meeting with Bishop Morrocco/Thomas Merton in their final round-robin match that afternoon.
The Muskies couldn’t pull off the victory, however, dropping a 1-0 decision to be ousted from further contention.
Bishop Morrocco scored a goal late in the second half to claim the second berth out of Pool ‘B.’
“They clammed right up and we moved into a 3-4-3 and pushed three guys forward, and we were all over them at the end, but couldn’t find the back of the net,” Muskie coach Shane Beckett lamented.
“They were a real nice team, and it’s tough, but we did so much better than I ever thought we could’ve done down there,” he added.
What ifs and could have beens are especially tough considering both of their losses were by one goal, but the black-and-gold certainly take solace in the fact they gave every team they played all they could handle.
“We had an excellent tournament,” Beckett lauded. “The two teams we lost to lost by a goal each to in the quarter-finals, and the two teams they lost to went on to the gold-medal game, so we were right there.
“The difference between us and them was just knowing how to win.”
As first reported on Friday, the Muskie girls wrapped up their OFSAA appearance in Kenora with a 3-0 loss to St. Joseph’s to finish with an 0-3 mark.
The black-and-gold battled injuries to key personnel and couldn’t mount much of an offensive attack in losses to Hamilton District Christian (5-2) and Bishop Strachan (4-0) on Thursday.
