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Junior Boys
Soccer
Last
minute goal sinks Louis Riel Rebelle's championship hopes
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online
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 Louis
Riel's Alex Martel can only watch as his second half shot sails just wide
of the John McCrae goal in the NCSSAA junior boys soccer championship on
Monday. Fred Sherwin/Photo
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Karma finally
caught up to the Louis Riel Rebelles junior boys soccer team on Monday.
After downing the St. Pius X-Men on a last minute goal in the first round
of the playoffs, the Rebelles were the victims of a last minute goal themselves,
falling 1-0 to John McCrae in the Tier 1 city championship.
Playing on a
neutral field at Ridgemont High School, the Rebelles took the action to
John McCrae in the early stages of the first half, producing a number of
quality scoring chances. Unfortunately, they were unable to convert any
of them into an actual goal.
One of the Rebelles
best scoring chances came at the end of the half when a John McCrea defender
misplayed a ball near the post and sent it across the open goal mouth. Just
as a Louis Riel player was about to get the ball it was kicked clear by
the John McCrae keeper.
As one-sided
as the play was in the first half, the action was equally lopsided in the
second half, only it was John McCrae that was producing the majority of
the scoring chances, forcing Rebelles keeper Chad Bush to make several outstanding
saves including a leaping palm save in the opening minute.
The Rebelles
dodged another bullet two minutes later when John McCrae's Kevin Petrie
missed a wide open net from just inside the box off a superbly executed
free kick.
Bush was forced
to make another spectacular save at the 18 minute mark of the second half
when he leapt high in the air to deflect a shot just over the crossbar.
The Rebelles'
best chance in the half came in the 24th minute when Souber Ismael made
a great cross to Alex Martel who saw his shot sail just wide of the top
corner.
John McCrae kept
pressing in the latter stages of the game and eventually earned themselves
a corner with less than a minute left in regulation. The well-placed kick
landed in the middle of the penalty area where it ended up at the feet of
Anisal Haque who blasted the ball into the back of the net.
Within seconds
of the resumption of play, the referee blew the final whistle and the John
McCrae players started celebrating the school's first city championship.
Following the
trophy presentation, Rebelles' head coach Joé Fournier tried to put the
game in perspective given their good fortune against St. Pius in the quarterfinals.
"I told
them that we had good karma in the game against Pius and in this game we
had bad karma," said Fournier. "I couldn't really have asked for
more from the guys. They played a great game and they stayed positive. We
just couldn't score."
(Posted 1:30
p.m., Nov. 4)
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