(Oakville, Ontario) – The St. Clair women's soccer team came up with a huge upset win on Saturday afternoon in Oakville in OCAA Playoff action. The Saints stunned the home team Sheridan Bruins with a hard fought 2-1 win.
The Bruins finished in 2nd place in the OCAA Central Division with a record of 8 wins and 2 losses. They scored 23 goals while allowing 11. Sheridan was ranked 4th in the OCAA and 11th in Canada. St. Clair finished the regular season with a record of 3 wins, 5 losses and 2 ties good for 4th place in the West Division. The Saints scored 20 goals and allowed 17 against. St. Clair is currently unranked.
The Saints got off to a great start as Ryan Morneau (Windsor; L’Essor) scored at the 6 minute mark on a nice play. Shortly after that Sheridan tied the score as Zoe Derkach put her own rebound in the net in the 14th minute. However, it didn’t take for St. Clair long to restore their lead as Cassie Nicholas (Windsor; Holy Names) put St. Clair up 2-1 in the 20th minute of play. St. Clair controlled most of the play for the first half attempting 9 shots compared to only 3 for Sheridan.
The Bruins pushed hard in the second half to get the equalizer but could not get one past Saint’s keeper Madison Kaldenbach (Milton; Craig Kielburger). Sheridan had 8 shot attempts in the 2nd half while the Saints only had 3 as they sat back and tried to protect their lead. Kaldenbach made 8 saves on the day compared to 7 for the Sheridan keeper. Sheridan had 6 corner kicks compared to 4 for St. Clair in the entire game.
Saints head coach Kris Geier was very proud of his team. “Our ladies played their best all-around game of the season at the most important time. It was a total team effort from the keeper right on out as we laid it all on the line.”
With the win, St. Clair advances to the OCAA Championships being hosted by Seneca College in Toronto from October 25-27.