3 9 |T h u rs d a y O c to b e r 26, 2 0 1 7 | OAKVILLE BEAVER |w w w .in s id e h a lto n .c o m Oakville Beaver Sports Editor, knagel@burlingtonpost.com sports "Connected to your Community * H A LTO N TRANSMISSION 559 SPEERS RD., #UNIT 3 www.haltontransmission.com 905 - 842-0725 Shootout win over Woodbridge gives Oakville club second title in three years By Herb Garbutt O akville Beaver sta ff Braden Culver watched from midfield. He had hoped the game would have been decided by now -- if n ot in the second half when the Oakville Blue Devils con trolled the play but managed just a single goal to tie the game 1-1, then certainly earlier in the pen alty kicks. Instead the Blue Devils had fallen behind early in the sh o o t out in last Sunday's League1 On tario cham pionship game. They pulled even w hen W oodbridge's M ichael Fayehun sailed his shot over the bar, allowing the Blue Devils' Stephen Adem olu to tie things up in the fourth round. It was playing out just as Oakville coach Duncan Wilde had laid it out to his keeper prior to the penalty kicks. "This is the reason you came here," he told Matt George. "Just save one of the five. Someone will miss the mark or hit the post. Save one and you'll give us a chance to win, because we're not going to miss four penalties." George had come to the Blue Devils from Woodbridge, where he had been named the league' s top keeper in 2 0 1 6 for a Strikers team that had lost in the League Cup final. "We wouldn't ac cept losing after the sea son we had," George said of the Blue Devils' 19-2-2 campaign that saw them amass a record-setting 59 points, topping their own m ark set in 2015. Stepping to the spot was Jo sh u a Paredes-Proctor. As W oodbridge team m ates George had faced him in pen alty kicks dozens of times in p rac tice. As ParedesProctor drew his leg back to kick, George took a small step to his left and then dove to his right. His ou t stretched arm s blocked the ball. "That' s when you start getting nervous," Culver said. "That' s when you realize it all falls on you." The 22-year-old had been in this position before. Five years earlier, Culver scored the clinching goal in a shootout as his Oakville Soc cer Club team won the prestigious Disney Soccer Showcase. "You can't think too m uch about it," he said. "There' s tons of emo tions but you just have to stay fo cused." Pick a spot. Commit to it, he thought to himself. Then he stepped up and delivered a hard, low shot toward the right corner. The Woodbridge keeper dove to ward the left. "I don't even know if I saw it go in," Culver said. "As soon as I saw him dive, I just turned and started running." Culver was m et by teammates and players from the Blue Dev ils' academy, who had jumped the fence to join in the celebration. "It was fantastic," Wilde said. "It' s difficult to take when you lose that way, but it's the greatest way to win. It was eu phoria. And the crowd was fantastic." Though it was es sentially a Woodbridge home game -- the Strikers play their home games on a neighbouring field -- a large contin gent of bell-ringing, horn blowing Oakville fans made the trip to Vaughan for Friday' s game and W il de said that gave the play ers a huge lift. "It was well earned," Wilde said. "W e didn't want to go to pen alties but we did ev erything possible Oakville Blue Devils captain Taylor McNamara celebrates the team's Leaguei Ontario championship in Vaughan last Friday. Oakville edged the Woodbridge Strikers 2-1 in penalty kicks to claim its second league title in three years. | Photo by Martin Bazyl - Leaguei Ontario to win it before that." W hile his coach m ight not have wanted penalties, his keep er was relishing the opportunity to square off against his former team. "I'm the type of goalie that I want to be in a situation like that," he said. "I've been second in this league the past three years, so it felt good to get that monkey off my back." The victory earns the Blue Devils a spot in next year's Voyageurs Cup -- the Canadian club champion ship -- where they will likely face a pro team from the North Ameri can Soccer League. Should the team advance far enough, Oakville could potentially even play one of Canada's three MLS teams -- To ronto F C , Montreal Impact or Van couver Whitecaps. "Everybody likes an underdog," Wilde said, "so we'll play on that." "Those are going to be the hard est games the Blue Devils play," Culver said. "I'm excited. I'm look ing forward to testing our talent and experience and comm itment against some pro team s." The first step in that process was reclaiming the League1 Ontario championship. After dropping the season opener, Oakville lost only one more game the rest of the League1 season. In the final, East Division cham pion Woodbridge capitalized on an early Blue Devils miscue to take the lead in the 11th minute. De spite pressure by Oakville, the lead held up going into the half. "F o r us there was never a doubt we would score," George said. "W e talked about that at the half. Our dressing rooms were right be side each other and when (W oodbridge) came in it was a little cel ebratory. W e've come back from 3-nil. We have the deepest roster and Duncan' s got the tactics. We were confident." Those tactics included what would seem like a risky move -- replacing the team' s top two goal scorers, Mat Santos and Anthony Novak -- at the half. In came Ademolu, a former national team play er, while 2 01 5 league MVP Filipe Vilela moved back to his regular striker position. In the 66th minute Ademolu' s header sprung Vilela down the side. Brandon Duarte raced in be hind the Woodbridge defence at the far post to convert his cross and tie the game. The Blue Devils' coach also de ployed Al Jam es in a new role as centre back to mark Woodbridge' s Marcus Nunos. Another player to com e on in the second half was Culver. The St. Thom as Aquinas grad was also a mem ber of the 2 0 1 5 team , but he never had the opportunity to play in the cham pionship game. Still in school at the University of Buffalo, he w atched the final on the Internet as his team mates captured the title. "I always played in Oakville grow ing u p , " Culver said. "W in ning this playing for Oakville m eans a lot. It m eans every th in g."