Saints soccer looking to recapture CISAA title

October 6, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Jake Courtepatte

The St. Andrew’s College Saints are on a path to revisit the magic that brought them the Canadian Independent School Athletic Association soccer championship in 2014 – and so far, they’re off to a good start.
Opening the season in early September with an early bird tournament win at Upper Canada College, the varsity soccer squad rattled off three straight league wins to end the month.
Cruising to a 5 – 0 win over Royal St. George’s to kick off the regular season, a 3 – 2 win over the always tough St. Michael’s College cemented the Saints’ position at the top of the standings ladder. They carried that momentum into last Wednesday’s home battle with Crescent School on Yuill Field, holding onto an early lead and taking their third straight.
With almost full possession in the Crescent half within the first fifteen minutes, the Saints saw a handful of chances before Nicholas Theodorakais finally converted over the Crescent goaltender’s head from just outside the box.
Only two minutes later, a foul deep in the Crescent zone led to a free kick taken by Jacob Grant, who made no mistake in curling it around the line of Crescent players for the 2 – 0 lead.
Just before the 25 minute mark, Austin Brett crossed it in close to Cameron Hillis who redirected it home for the home team.
Though Crescent broke the goose egg before the half, sending a close one through Saints goalkeeper Eugene Lee, Niklas Seidel restored the three goal lead midway through the second. The final score was 4 – 2 for the Saints.
While they experienced their first loss of the season at homecoming on Saturday, a 4 – 0 shutout to the reigning champions Upper Canada, the Saints sit tied atop the best division in independent school soccer with a 3 – 1 record.
Their season ended last year with a loss to Upper Canada in the CISAA semifinals, who went on to defeat St. Mike’s in the championship.
Next up for the Saints is a home game hosting the 1 – 1 Appleby College next Wednesday, with three more regular season games to be played before playoffs in early November.