Main photo: The Huntsville U15 Strikers’ team members (not in the order pictured) Josh Bemmann, Kevin Walsh, Devon Tate, Braeden Thompson, Nate Johnson, Ian Adams, Quentin Clark, Andy Bulloch, Caden Armstrong, Cole Anderson, Jesse Gardiner, Sam Richter, Nicholas Daniel, Ashton Craig, Ben Shearing, Jayden Freeman, Byron Wilder, Mike Sykes, Luke Mensour, Drew Gardiner, Peter Prosser. Coach Graham Thompson, Assistant Coach Alex Gardiner, Team Manager Odette Daniel.
A group of skilled boys have claimed the 2018 Huronia District Soccer League Cup again for Huntsville. The U15 boys team won 3-2 on Saturday, August 18 at the West Orillia Sports Complex.
With the weather perfect for an early morning soccer game, the Strikers outplayed the Orillia Lightning in the first half, finding themselves ahead 2-0; a deserved score as they shut down Orillia’s offence, passed well and put many shots on net. At this point the score could easily have been 5-0, however the Orillia keeper, a player put in net due to the absence of the team’s regular goalie, was making incredible saves and keeping his team in the game.
After half-time the Strikers’ game began to relax, allowing Orillia to score two well-deserved goals as they pressed hard to crawl back into the competition and give themselves a chance to take the Cup away from last year’s champions.
However it was destined that the superior play of the Huntsville Strikers would return and, after regrouping mentally, they returned to their passing game and ensured the victory by making a great play up the field and putting the ball in the back of Orillia’s net.
For the remaining minutes of the game the Strikers focused on possession of the ball, keeping it away from Orillia’s players. The Orillia keeper continued to make save after save as Huntsville continued the onslaught, however as time ended it didn’t matter as the Huntsville Strikers became Cup Champions, again.
Thank you to all the parents and family who supported the players all season. As well a huge thank you to team staff, including Team Manager Odette Daniel for organizing the team’s roster, games sheets, tournaments and making sure things ran smoothly overall. Thank you to the Huntsville Place Mall for being the team sponsor again this year! Also thank you to Coach Alex Gardiner for coaching with me again, ensuring our team played to the best of its ability, and keeping me calm in tense situations!
Submitted by Coach Graham Thompson
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