Recently, the Senior soccer boys travelled to Victoria, BC for the annual ISA tournament. Our athletic strand struck the beginning of the year at full force. Grads Jordan Mauro, Nick Lewis, and Brendan Artley, the team’s captains, entered the tournament with the goal, “to make Collingwood history and be the first team to win ISA’s.” The tournament format was: there was a round robin group stage, and the team who finished first in each of the three groups would form the championship group. In Collingwood’s group the teams were Brentwood, and GNS. GNS had won the tournament recently, and Brentwood has always proved to be a great athletic school. GNS was Collingwood’s first encounter and the Cavaliers took the game 2-1 after three great, late game saves from Jacob Smith, and a scored penalty kick from Nick Lewis. After the Cavs beat Brentwood in their second game, they were advanced to the championship round.
The first game of the championship round was against St. Georges. Collingwood dominated the possession game, but no one could score on St. Georges’ amazing goalkeeper. The game went to penalty kicks and the Cavaliers lost 5-4. Due to the format of the tournament though, because St. Michaels – the other team in the championship round – beat St. Georges in regulation, the Cavaliers were faced with three options. If they won in regulation they won the tournament; if they won or lost in penalties they came second; if they lost in regulation, they would come third in the tournament. The Cavs were guaranteed a medal, but as Coach Tasso Kanavos said, “We didn’t come all the way to this tournament to just get on the podium. We came to win.” The team started the game in full swing with Aden Whitworth hitting a great shot, and even though the goalie got fingertips to the ball, he couldn’t save the goal. As the game continued, Brendan Artley, Max De Pfyffer, Carter Armstrong, and Taylor Haas – the defensive line for the Cavaliers – kept the game at 1-0 not allowing any good scoring opportunities. As the game approached the final third, Jordan Mauro received a pass on the edge of the box, took one touch and scored the game-winning goal into the ball into the bottom right corner of the net. The Cavaliers tightened up on defense, and history was made when the referee blew the final whistle. It was a great showing from the Cavaliers, and even though the team had only been together for less than a week, they were able to achieve greatness.
By: Jordan mauro