Lucas Punkari
After experiencing the joy of capturing the NorWOSSA crown a little more than a week earlier, the Muskie boys’ soccer team faced the opposite end of the sporting spectrum at the OFSAA ‘AA’ championships in Windsor last week—finishing round-robin play with a 0-4 record in Pool ‘C.’
“If you had asked us how our season went after we won the league title, and especially with winning two games in Kenora on the last day of the season, we would have told you that it was a great year,” head coach Shane Beckett remarked.
“But our goal was to make it into the playoff round at OFSAA, and to finish up how we did, I think it really left a sour taste in the players’ mouths, especially for our senior players,” he stressed.
Entering the 20-team tournament as a unseeded team (only the top eight squads were ranked), Fort High fell 2-1 to the fifth-ranked St. Paul Wolverines (Mississauga) in their opener last Thursday morning.
“It was an tremendously unlucky result as we dominated the game,” Beckett recalled.
“We had a penalty shot which was extremely debatable as to whether or not the ball had gone over the goal line or not, we hit a couple of posts, and we had two really dangerous free kicks.
“But in the end, we just gave it away,” Beckett sighed.
Their second game that afternoon saw the Muskies lose 4-0 to the defending champion Kennedy Clippers (Windsor), who Beckett called “the best team that he had ever coached against.”
Beckett also noted the Clippers’ style of play, while not identical, was quite similar to the way the recently-crowned European club champion Barcelona plays the game.
“Our fullbacks were coming off the field and telling me, ‘I have no clue how to defend against these guys,’” Beckett remarked.
“They were extremely patient on the ball, and made a lot of quick 1-2 passes, which is something that we eventually want to try and emulate,” he added.
“We came down all this way to face the best teams in the province, and we certainly saw that against Kennedy.”
Needing a win to keep their slim playoff hopes alive, the black-and-gold fell 1-0 to the third-ranked St. Joseph’s Rams (St. Thomas) on Friday morning, officially ending their chances of making it to the quarter-finals.
“We out-chanced them by about a 10-to-1 margin, but their goalie was able to make four gigantic saves, and they were able to capitalize on their chances and we didn’t,” Beckett lamented.
With only pride on the line in their final round-robin game early Friday afternoon, Fort High jumped out to a 1-0 halftime lead over the also winless Theriault Flames (Timmins)—only to give up three unanswered goals in the second half as their chance to come away from OFSAA with a victory slipped away.
“That was another game where we outworked our opponent,” Beckett stressed.
“But in the end, it was just some unlucky bounces that cost us the win.”
Beckett felt one of the reasons for the Muskies’ winless showing came down to the fact that his team was unable to cash in on their scoring chances while their opponents did.
“I think part of that comes down to the amount of seasoning those top teams have,” Beckett said.
“Those teams have a longer season where they are playing against a lot of tough competition, and while they’re getting ready to get their game plan set for OFSAA following their playoffs, we are just starting our season up here,” he noted.
Despite the rough ending to the campaign, Beckett still felt this season was an extremely enjoyable one, especially with the group of players he had under his tutelage.
“This is one of the best teams I’ve ever had a chance to coach, especially with their work effort and their commitment,” he lauded.
Evidence of that was shown the night before the tournament began, which also was when Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final between the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins was taking place.
“I headed down to the common room of the hotel expecting to find everybody there watching the game, and when I got there, there was only a couple of guys in the room,” Beckett recalled.
“I asked them, ‘Hey, where’s everybody else?’ and they told me that they were all outside playing soccer.”
With as many as eight players not returning to defend their NorWOSSA crown, some might think that it could be a rebuilding year for the black-and-gold in 2012.
But with many returning players, as well as potential newcomers, taking part in the men’s Borderland Soccer League here this summer, Beckett expects his team to be strong yet again.
“Playing this summer will not only give the guys a chance to become stronger with one another, but it’ll also give them a chance to develop and get some playing time,” he reasoned.
“When you look at someone like a [Grade 9 student] Connor McManaman, he’ll use the summer to build his game up and will then be able to battle for a starting job come next year,” Beckett noted.
