The North Bay Lakers Soccer Club U17 Boys have been crowned champions in their second tournament of the year winning over teams from Cambridge, Paris and London at the event held in Ancaster last weekend.
Even though the team was dealing with some player injuries and a shortage of substitute players, through hard work and perseverance the team accomplished the incredible being crowned overall champions.
The U17 team played in a combined U17/U18 age category and started the tournament with a 4-2 victory over Paris FC with 2 goals from Henry Ford and one each from Raphael Dahoun and Riccardo Celebre.
In the second game, the team was dealt a controversial goal and a disappointing loss to Cambridge United for a game that was called short by an entire half due to lightening and weather conditions. In the third and final game of the round robin, the team met U18 Byron SC in a hard-fought and very physical match in which a brawl erupted late into the second half, and saw 4 players ejected from the game that resulted in a 0-0 draw to complete the round robin and allow the Lakers to advance to the final.
The final championship game was an exciting back and forth hard-fought match versus Cambridge United. The North Bay Lakers seeking revenge for the earlier controversial loss played very strong positional and defensive soccer and both teams displayed incredible effort and skill up until the final whistle. Regulation time ended with a 0-0 draw, which meant penalty kicks.
The North Bay Lakers secured the title in a 3-1 penalty shootout with goals from Henry Ford, Jardel Pongang, Raphael Dahoun and three brilliant diving penalty saves by Martin Dubé.
In addition to the team’s success over the weekend, the U17 Lakers picked-up a silver medal at a tournament in Oshawa in mid May.
Based on the result and competition, it was an incredible debut to the season which includes regular high-level competitive league play in Southern Ontario.
Once again, this year the team has significantly bolstered their midfield, defensive and offensive threat with a returning good core of players and the addition of some new key players.
