Jamie Mountain
The Golden State Warriors are currently in the midst of a dynasty in the NBA, having won three of the last four Finals.
The Muskie boys’ soccer team has formed its own version of the Warriors, creating a dynasty of its own in NorWOSSA play as the black-and-gold added an impressive ninth-straight league title to the program’s impressive history last week.
After finishing the regular season in first place with a 5-0-1 record and nabbing a bye to the NorWOSSA final in Dryden, the Muskies kept that momentum going as they pulled out a 2-1 win over the host Eagles last Wednesday afternoon to hoist the championship trophy yet again.
“It’s been quite the run for the Muskie soccer program, for sure,” Muskie head coach Chris Sinclair said of Fort High winning nine-straight titles.
“I think there’s a lot of things that go into it something like that–but the biggest thing is the students,” he stressed.
“The leadership, the skill, the work ethic, the team chemistry, everything just adds up.
“And the kids who have been apart of the program over the past 10 years have all made this program get to where it is,” he lauded.
“Each year is a new team, but the reputation of the team stays. I think when kids make the team, they realize that there is a certain expectation, and it helps them raise their level of competition,” he reasoned.
With another league crown comes yet another trip to the OFSAA ‘AA’ boys’ tournament for the Muskies that gets underway tomorrow and runs through Saturday in North Bay.
Fort High has faced some stiff challenges from the more skilled southern teams in years past and it’s something they are prepared for heading into competition this year.
“Most of the teams down at OFSAA are very skilled. They are filled with good soccer players who have the opportunity to play year round,” Sinclair noted.
“There is a lot more competitive summer and indoor winter leagues for them to develop.
“So challenges that we will see is just the skill of lots of the players,” he conceded.
“But to me, the way to beat skill is hard work. One area that we really need to focus on when playing skilled teams, is taking away time and space with the ball, which comes from hard work and 100 percent effort.
“That is what we are going to need from all 19 of our players this week,” he stressed.
Fort High didn’t waste any time getting on the board last Wednesday against Dryden as Brett Allan opened the scoring within the first minute of the game as the Muskies took a 1-0 lead into halftime.
A breakdown in defensive coverage then led to the second-place Eagles knotting it within the early minutes of the second half as they fired a low strike past Muskie keeper Jacob Albright.
“I thought we played pretty well for the majority of the game,” Sinclair remarked.
“I think the biggest challenge of the game was keeping our composure. We scored within the first couple minutes of the match, which definitely helped our case. “We were able to be a little more relaxed having that 1-0 lead. Once they scored to tie it, I think we got really up tight and maybe a little nervous as they kept pressing,” he conceded.
“We were able to hold on and finally get back to playing our game.”
But regaining their composure later in the second half, Allan sent a beautiful cross over to Connor Nelson to the far left post, who flicked a header top shelf over the Eagles’ goalkeeper, to lift the Muskies to yet another league title.
“We had a few really good chances and I knew it was just a matter of time before a bounce went our way,” Sinclair recalled.
“[Brett Allan] crossed it [to the] far post and Connor Nelson headed it in.
“I thought Wednesday’s final game was a good soccer match,” he added.
“I thought we controlled the play for the majority of the first half and then they [the Eagles] started the second half very strong.
“I’d say the first 10 minutes of the second half they were all over us,” he conceded.
“They had a lot of chances and it seemed we couldn’t get the ball out of our defensive field. We pulled it together and eventually got back to playing our game, and we capitalized on one of our many chances.”
The 20-team OFSAA field was announced on Sunday, with the Muskies being ranked fifth in Pool ‘D’.
But there is little to be ascertained from how the teams are grouped or what order they are listed in their particular pool.
The Muskies kick off play tomorrow against the top-ranked Iona CSS Dolphins (Mississauga) at 8 a.m. (all times CDT), then face the second-seeded St. Charles College Cardinals (Sudbury) at 2 p.m.
On Friday, the Muskies will square off against the fourth-ranked King’s Christian Collegiate Knights (Oakville) at 7:30 a.m.
Then they’ll wrap up pool play against the third-raked St. Mary CSS Thunder (Cobourg) at 1 p.m.
The top two teams in each pool advance to the cross-over quarter-finals, which will take place Friday at 4:15 p.m.
The semifinals are slated for Saturday at 8 a.m.
The bronze-medal game then goes at 11:30 a.m., followed by the gold-medal final at 2 p.m.
“Obviously we are very proud of what we have accomplished this year, but that’s exactly it, we can’t be satisfied with just a NorWOSSA title,” said Sinclair.
“We are heading down to North Bay with one more goal that we are going to try to accomplish–we want to make it out of the round robin play.
“That means we have to finish in first or second in our pool,” he noted.
“The mindset going in is going to be just play our game,” he stressed. “We can’t control anything but our effort. We have to be the hardest working team at this tournament if we are going to have success and reach our final goal.”
