The Fort Frances Selects were eliminated from further contention at the Thunder Bay invitational soccer tournament Sunday with a 3-0 loss to Thunder Bay Polonia.
Polonia had a steady offensive attack in the quarter-final match-up, scoring a goal in the first half, then adding another early in the second half on a penalty kick.
They iced the victory with a goal late in the game.
Still, it was an impressive run for the Selects, who finished the round-robin portion of the 21-team tournament with a 2-0-1 record–and one of just two squads to not allow a goal in their first three games.
The Selects, comprised of players from the local men’s Borderland Soccer Association, opened play Saturday with a 0-0 draw against St. Andrew’s (Winnipeg), a team that finished in second-place in the premiere division there this season.
“That was a big game for us to tie because we knew the St. Andrew’s club was a very good team,” Selects’ keeper Bill Daley said.
“We went into that game playing for the tie.”
The Selects then jumped all over Timmins, scoring two goals in each of the two halves en route to an easy 4-0 victory. Olaf Ruppenstein and Thor Ruppenstein paced the Selects with a pair of markers.
With just eight teams advancing to the playoff round, the Selects then found themselves in a must-win situation early Sunday morning against Azzurri (Thunder Bay).
And they did just that, scoring a pair of goals in the game’s final four minutes for a tight 2-0 win. Jason Kabel netted the game-winner on a breakaway, then Thor Ruppenstein added his third goal of the tournament to ice the win.
Lucania (Winnipeg) earned the tournament crown with a 2-0 shutout over the Minneapolis Internationals in the final.
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