Men's Soccer captures indoor provincial title
By: William Shoukri
Humber Athletics Communications
VAUGHAN - Men's indoor soccer was crowned the OCAA champions on Friday after besting the Conestoga Condors 3-1 at Ontario Soccer Centre. Danny Medeiros, Tomas Joseph, and Santino De Bartolo were the goal scorers for Humber, with Franz Mella adding a highlight-reel assist to help Medeiros open the scoring. Keeper Ezequiel Carrasco was fantastic all game long, acting as the Hawks' floor general and backbone on defence.
Match Recap
It was a matchup between the OCAA's two best soccer programs on Friday. The last time these players met was the OCAA men's soccer finals in October where Conestoga shut out the Hawks 3-0. Both teams came into this match with something to prove, especially Humber. Conestoga was the only team that held them scoreless on the pitch this season. It was an aggressive start from both squads, with hard, physical tackling and intense man-on-man coverage.
Humber was the better ball moving team early on, creating space to make plays. The team-first play would result in the Hawks opening the scoring with Danny Medeiros, converting on a beautiful no-look feed from Franz Mella in the 11th minute. Just minutes later, Tomas Joseph stole the ball in the midfield and capitalized from outside the box with a fantastic strike. The Condors had possession for the last two minutes of the half and the Hawks bore down and shut the door. Humber would close out the half with a 2-0 lead, having outplayed Conestoga on both ends of the pitch.
Conestoga started with sustained pressure for the first two minutes of the half, but were unable to get anything on net. After the attack, Humber countered. Santino De Bartolo turned his defender inside-out and finished with a powerful strike from the right side of the box to beat the keeper. The game fell apart from that point on. Both teams were playing extremely physical soccer and the official was struggling to control the game.
Numerous fouls were called against both teams, with Humber creating a two-man disadvantage for themselves after an altercation between some players and the official. Conestoga would score on a penalty kick in the seventh minute to make it 3-1, and Humber would have play good positional defence with Franz Mella spending time in the sin bin. The Hawks did exactly what they had to do, keeping the Condors to the outside and refusing to let them penetrate the middle of the pitch. Humber closed out the game with a final score of 3-1, bringing home their first OCAA championship since 2017.
After the match, Danny Medeiros was awarded tournament MVP and Ezequiel Carrasco was honoured as the keeper of the tournament. Matthew Paiva was named to the all-tournament team.
Humber Highlights
- This is men's indoor soccer's 16th OCAA championship.
- Humber has won 13 OCAA titles since the year 2000.
- The Hawks only allowed 5 goals against in 9 matches this season.
