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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, May 31, 2013 | 30 King's wins third straight regional boys' soccer title by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver Staff Anthony Sossa says the biggest lesson he and the King's Christian Cavaliers learned last season was perseverance. Last year, it rewarded them with the Ontario high school boys' soccer A championship. Yesterday (Thursday), it helped them claim a third straight Halton senior title with a 4-0 victory over the St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders at North Park. The high-scoring Cavaliers had averaged 6.3 goals per game heading into yesterday's A/ AA championship game. But for just the second time this season, King's went into the half without a goal. That set up a much different second half than the last time the teams met, a 6-2 Cavalier victory two weeks ago. "It was the final, so we were expecting a fight," said Sossa, "but I knew the boys would come through." And they did. King's scored four times in the final 25 minutes to secure the victory and will now head to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations tournament looking to defend its title. Aquinas, despite the loss, will compete in the AA tournament in Stratford. It was Sossa who got the Cavaliers rolling yesterday. He headed Dylan Agnew's free kick into the Aquinas net to open the scoring. Sossa almost added to the lead moments later when he weaved through three defenders, only to have his shot hit the post. "STA played a very good game," said Cavaliers coach Mike Zietsma. "It was a 4-0 game but it was a closer game than the score showed." It was actually Aquinas that had the best chance early in the second half. Malcolm Omoruyi took a free kick and fired just wide. Omoruyi drew special attention from the King's defence and Zietsma said his defenders did a good job limiting his chances. That backline had to be rebuilt after last year's OFSAA championship but defenders Spencer Eisses, Jared Morris and Ramez Nossier and keeper Alex Dos Santos stepped in admirably. "We can push four guys up front because of the strength of our backline," Zietsma said. That showed as the Cavaliers attacked in waves in the second half. After Sossa's goal, Trevor Victoria sent the ball to Spencer Maybee, who curled a shot inside the post from 25 yards out to make it 2-0. With under 10 minutes to play, Sossa had a shot blocked but the ball came right back to him and he drilled it home for a 3-0 lead. Minutes later, the Cavs were pressuring again when an Aquinas clearing attempt inadvertently found the back of the Raiders' own net. "I think we just wore them down," Zietsma said. King's will now head to the OFSAA tournament in Timmins with a clear goal. "We're trying to repeat," said Michael Panza, who will join Sossa at the University of Guelph next year. "It's a great experience." It will be the first OFSAA soccer experience for midfielder Zach Moll, who cleared a ball off the line in the first half to keep the game scoreless. "I'm excited for sure," said the Grade 11 student, who played tennis for King's last year. "I played a few years back. These guys convinced me to come out." The lure of an OFSAA medal certainly didn't hurt their case. Declan Cuddy of the King's Christian Collegiate Cavaliers keeps the ball away from St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders player Owen Huntington Thursday at North Park. The Cavaliers blanked Aquinas 4-0 in the Halton senior boys' soccer A/AA final. More photos from the boys' and girls' finals can be viewed online at http://bit.ly/ Zr5vKS. | photo by Nikki Wesley - Oakville Beaver - @Halton_Photog Cavs drop girls' A/AA final, but still OFSAA-bound by Jon Kuiperij Alessia Di Carlo (right) of the King`s Christian Collegiate Cavaliers heads the ball as Lester B. Pearson Patriots opponent Jenn Aird defends during yesterday's (Thursday's) Halton senior girls' soccer A/ AA final at North Park. The Cavaliers lost 1-0 in their first-ever appearance in a girls' soccer final.| photo by Nikki Wesley Oakville Beaver - @ Halton_Photog Beaver Sports Editor Sonia Donohoe got the last laugh. The Lester B. Pearson student had just made a questionable tackle on a King's Christian Collegiate player in yesterday's (Thursday's) Halton senior girls' A/AA soccer final at North Park, and she was hearing about it from the Cavaliers' fans. "Everyone was yelling at me," said the 17-year-old Donohoe. "I just said to myself `I'm going to score.'" Moments later, Donohoe did, lofting a free kick over King's netminder Alexa Hiebert and into the net. The goal broke a scoreless deadlock midway through the second half and stood up as the winner in the Patriots' 1-0 victory. Both teams had already qualified for Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championship tournaments -- Pearsonfor the AA tournament, King's for the A competition -- but Donohoe said she will remember the marker forever. "This is my last year," said Donohoe, who was also part of Pearson's OFSAA bronze medal-winning team two years ago. "It's a nice way to end (high school)." The Cavaliers, making their first-ever appearance in a regional girls' soccer final, weren't convinced Donohoe should have had the opportunity to be the hero. "I actually thought we had the call. Then I turned around (and saw Pearson awarded the ball) and wondered what happened," said King's coach James Walraven. "I didn't think it needed any card. I just thought the foul was against them, not us. But the ref might have had a different angle than I did." It made for a tough ending for the Cavaliers, but Walraven was pleased with how competitive his side was against a Pearson team that defeated King's 3-1 in regular-season play. Both teams hit the crossbar once, and the Cavaliers nearly tied the game late in regulation on a header that Patriots keeper Carlee Bennard scrambled across the crease to pull out of the air. "It would have meant a lot for us to win this, but I come at it as we're a single-A school and we ended up on top of the single-A group," Walraven said. "A win here would have been amazing, but it would have been the extra on top of making it to OFSAA and of making it to the Halton final for the first time."