Men's Soccer Lose Nailbiter in National Semi-Final

In the final match of the night at the CCAA Men's Soccer National Championship the host St. Clair Saints took on the Douglas College Royals. Both were looking to meet the Conestoga in the gold medal match.

In a seemingly even affair no team looked to be ahead of the other. That all changed in the 20th minute when a ball was lobbed into the Saints 18 yard box where the keeper misjudged the ball, and it slipped off his fingertips heading towards the goal. The defender was able to clear it off the line but not out of danger. The Douglas player was quickly able to corral the ball and play it back to the middle of the 18 yard box where Dominik Hajdecki slotted the ball home, putting his team up 1-0.

The rest of the half saw St. Clair apply some pressure but were unable to capitalize on any quality chance. The start of the second half saw the host team have a quality chance inside the six-yard box. The forward put the ball over the net, which could have levelled the match three minutes into the second half. St. Clair kept applying pressure to find that equalizing goal. As the minutes ticked down the chances picked up. In the late stages of the match St. Clair strung together a few nice passes. Which ended on the foot of Massimo Pollard who looked to play hero and save his team from elimination. But was unable to stay over the ball and rung it off the crossbar.

With seven minutes of extra time the Saints had one last big push to keep their hopes alive. Sadly, they were unable to find that equalizing goal which meant the Douglas College Royals survived and advance to the gold medal match on Saturday. They will take on the Conestoga Condors for the CCAA gold medal. St. Clair will fall to the bronze medal semi-final and take on VIU at 3 pm on Friday with a shot to win some hardware still.

The 4imprint Canada Players of the game: Douglas- Behrad Hajimohammadi St. Clair-Paolo Davia