Falcons edge Muskies for NWOSSAA title

The home team got their wish, but they should have been more careful about what they asked for.
The underdog Muskies took the visiting St. Ignatius Falcons to the limit, but the Thunder Bay champs rode the wings of a 3-2 penalty kick shootout victory to capture the NWOSSAA boys’ soccer crown here Saturday evening.
Chris Sousa opened the scoring for St. Ignatius in the 37th minute after he was awarded a penalty kick when Muskie Rick Ricard tripped Gustavo Argueta on a scoring opportunity inside the Fort Frances 18-yard box.
Sousa’s attempt rocketed off the crossbar and straight back to him, where he blasted the ball top shelf past Muskie keeper Dan Poperechny.
After being thwarted on several chances in the second half to tie the game, the Muskies rose from the ashes when the Falcons’ Dave Tallori was whistled with just three seconds left in regulation time for a hand-ball violation in St. Ignatius’ 18-yard box.
Matt Basaraba calmly walked up and drilled a shot low to the righthand corner to tie the contest.
Two 10-minute overtime halves solved nothing, leading to the decisive penalty kick shootout, with the Muskies ending up shooting first.
Basaraba staked the hosts to a 1-0 advantage, but Mike Ianni tied it. Then Nick Persichino put the Falcons in front after the Muskies’ Bryan Chambers shot wide on his chance.
Fort High’s Jeremy Wilson and Sousa both missed their attempts before Chris Faragher tied it for the Muskies.
But Andrew Fernandez’s offspeed shot beat Poperechny and when Andrew Curr drifted his shot wide, St. Ignatius had earned its ticket to the all-Ontarios in Timmins this weekend.
Wilson’s hat trick—including the game-winner in overtime—had paced the Muskies to a narrow 4- 3 comeback win over the Manitouwadge Wolverines in their opening match Saturday morning.
The upstart Wolverines, representing the North Shore of Superior, held 2-1 and 3-2 leads in the second half, but couldn’t hold off a relentless Muskie squad, which also got a goal from Scott Bridgeman.
Jesse Tugwood, Brook Newton, and Eric Escarte replied for Manitouwadge.
St. Ignatius then annihilated the Wolverines 9-0 in their afternoon confrontation.
Marco Pereira and Rob Menei each tallied twice, with Mike Laccria, Sousa, Ianni, and Matthew Eaton notching singles (the ninth goal scorer was unavailable).