By Jeff Gard/Today’s Northumberland
Ethan Young scored five goals for the Cobourg Collegiate Institute Wolves in a 9-0 win over the host Port Hope High School Spartans in Kawartha senior boys soccer action on Monday afternoon.
CCI concluded its regular season schedule with a 2-0-2 record, which included a previous 12-1 over the Spartans and two ties, 0-0 and 1-1, against Cobourg’s St. Mary Thunder.
The other Wolves goals Monday were tallied by Diego Castro, Adam Donahoe, Evan Gibb and Kyle Ramsperger, who was the goalkeeper for the first half of the game before scoring his goal in the second. Brennan Rosskopf took over netminding duties for CCI in the second half.
Team members in another strong performance for the Wolves also include Abdullah Al Salihi, Kevin Cranston, Jacob Cavanaugh, Gabe Ferreri, Jack Hughes, Samer Ghier, Seth Niles, Andrew Leonard, Morgan MacFarlane, Jack Stratford, Devin Targon, Brendan Woodward, Nathan Young and Omar Al Salihi.
“It’s a really fun group of players,” said CCI coach Justin Kerr. “They enjoy playing soccer of course, but also being around each other so they get along well. It’s a positive environment, nice to coach the kids and they like coming to the field every day.”
Kerr was pleased to see the enthusiasm from students to have soccer return to the school this year. Thirty players tried out for the senior team, a larger number than expected as the coach wasn’t sure what the numbers would be following a year without school sports.
“I was worried maybe it would be a building year for everybody, but the players continued to play in the community (with the Northumberland Soccer Club) so that kept them in shape and it was great to have their experience back,” Kerr said.
Kerr was quick to credit the Port Hope players, which weren’t competing on a true senior team, but rather a varsity team comprised of all age groups. A good number of the Spartans players are junior-aged (grades 9 and 10).
“They have a lot of determination. They certainly didn’t quit even though we went up a few goals,” Kerr said. “It is hard when you’re the team that’s up a fair bit to cut back and not try to attack at all. We were trying to pass the ball around and do what we could. They kept going hard and had some fast and aggressive players so they still have us a good workout and challenged us. That’s a good sign for them. I hope they can build as a team into senior next year.”
The playoff format is different this year with no semifinals being held.
CCI, from the South Division, will play the winner of the North Division in the Kawartha AAA final. St. Peter will face Thomas A. Stewart on Wednesday with the winner moving on to face the Wolves on Thursday, Oct. 28 in Peterborough.
Kerr expects a strong team from Peterborough, whoever they face, as teams are bolstered by rep club players, many of whom CCI players are familiar with.
“We know we’ll have some quality players that we’ll have to challenge against and we’ll certainly have to be ready,” Kerr said. “We played two really hard games against St. Mary’s the last couple weeks so our team has been tested, that’s for sure. We’ll just have to bring it next Thursday in a do-or-die final game.”
The winner of the Kawartha final will move onto the COSSA final, which will be held in the Quinte region this year.
