On the first day of the OCAA Provincial Championship, the George Brown Huskies dropped a close decision in extra time to the Humber Hawks, while the Conestoga Condors took down the Seneca Sting 2-1 in their semi-final match at Ester Shiner Stadium.
“Our players played extremely hard today, but we weren’t able to take advantage of some opportunities,” Huskies head coach John Williams explained. “Give Humber credit, they played well, but we were down three key players. For tomorrow, we need to regroup and come with energy to take home the bronze medal.”
The first half between the Huskies and Hawks was a stalemate. Not too many chances for either side, as it was scoreless at halftime. In the second half, the Huskies struck first after an amazing individual effort from Darius Kerr-Cooper in the 51st minute. The Hawks responded though. On a free kick, the ball deflected off a few players before Adam Czerkawski headed in the tying goal in the 71st minute. The score remained the same for the rest of regulation, so extra time was needed.
The Hawks got on the board fairly quickly thanks to Santino De Bartolo in the 96th minute. The Huskies put together a few chances, but nothing materialized. De Bartolo added his second of the game in the 120th to punch the four-time defending champions ticket to the gold medal match.
In the other semi-final prior, the offense was on full display early on with the Sting striking first in the opening minutes. After Lorenzo Mayer's free-kick was blocked, he regained control and sniped the top right corner to take the lead. The undefeated Condors responded quickly with goals from Saab Kohar, and Josip-Pavle Stojanovic in the 14th minute, to go up 2-1. Conestoga held off Seneca the rest of the way to lock in their place for the program’s first gold medal match since 1979.
The matches on Sunday at Esther Shiner Stadium is as follow:
- Bronze medal match: Seneca vs George Brown at 12pm
- Gold medal match: Humber vs Conestoga at 3pm
Live Webcast: www.ocaa.com/ocaalive
