Men's Soccer Advance to OCAA Quarter-Finals

Windsor, ON (Oct 16, 2021) The St. Clair men's soccer team advanced to the OCAA Quarter-Finals with a hard fought 2-0 win over the Niagara Knights (Welland, ON) on Saturday night at Acumen Stadium. It was the first every playoff win for the Saints in their new stadium.

The Knights got off to a quick start getting a great scoring chance but Saints Keeper Thomas Kogel (Windsor; St. Joseph's) came up with a huge save. St. Clair settled down after that and controlled the play for most of the first half with several quality scoring chances but could not get their shots on target. The Saints went up 1-0 on a corner kick on a nice finish by Joao Gabriel Santos (Brazil). St. Clair had 12 shot attempts in the first half compared to 6 for Niagara. Niagara lost their starting keeper in the 28^th minute in a battle for a 50-50 ball.

The Saints got off to a solid start in the second half and finally put the second goal past the Knights keeper after a great setup by Austin Severino (Kingsville; Kingsville District) and finish by Massimo Pollard (Windsor; Holy Names) in the 64^th minute. After falling behind the Knights but the pressure on in the last 20 minutes but most of their attempts were from long range. Niagara had 10 shot attempts in the 2^nd half while the Saints had 7. 

Kogel eared the clean sheet and win by stopping all 10 shots her faced. St. Clair had 6 corner kicks with Niagara having none in the match.

With the win St. Clair will now travel to Oshawa on Saturday, Oct 23 to take on the Durham Lords at 5 pm. The winner of that match will advance to the OCAA Final Four being hosted by St. Clair on October 29-30. Durham finished in first place in the East Division with a record of 4-2. The Saints were 2^nd in the West with a record of 4-2.