Under-15 HBC Selects reach semi's in Sudbury

The North Bay U15 Boys HBC Selects moved on to the semi-finals at the recent 10th Annual Sudbury Panhellenic Soccer Tournament before being eliminated by the eventual champions.

The recently formed squad put on a very good showing for a team with very little “Rep” experience. In their first game they defeated the Timmins Prowlers 1-0 as Scott Hunter launched a free kick around the wall in the second half to give them their margin of victory. Jacob Rochefort earned the shutout with a spectacular first half keeping his team in the game with some fine saves. Midfielder Zach Wilkinson was named game MVP.

In game 2 the Selects faced Ottawa South United and despite numerous chances were unable to bulge the twine. The game ended in a 0-0 tie with Rochefort once again earning the shutout. Sweeper Scott Hunter was named game MVP.

The third game saw the Selects playing against the same Sault Ste-Marie Civic team who completely dominated the Selects in a previous tournament two months ago. Playing in extremely windy conditions the locals fell behind 1-0 in the first half before Justin Bishop showed some nice footwork and scored early in the second half on a beautiful feed from Kody Budge after some very hard work. However, after North Bay outchanced their opponents 15-4 the Soo squad were given a very controversial penalty shot with less than one minute to play and claimed a 2-1 victory. Goalkeeper Jacob Rochefort was named game MVP.

The 1-1-1 record allowed the Selects to finish second in their division and move on to the semi-finals on Sunday. In this game the opponents were the Barrie Spirit who had won their division by going undefeated. The North Bay squad held their own against a very skilled, physical Barrie team that took a 1-0 lead in the 10th minute of the second half on a misplayed ball on the rain soaked field.

Five minutes later Barrie added to their lead on a
highlight reel header from a corner kick that just skimmed underneath the crossbar. The final score was 2-0 in favour of Barrie. Once again midfielder Zach Wilkinson was named game MVP.

The coaches were very proud of their team as they showed a marked improvement since their first tournament 2 months previous. All players played their hearts out and the outcome was well earned. Team members include Kody Budge, Scott Hunter, Justin Bishop, Alex Ceccanese, Michael Cuncins, Brad Herzog, Zach Andre, Jeremy & Joe Poeta, Max Robertson, Garret Saczawa, David Silveri, Simon Tessier, Adam Weir, Zach Wilkinson, & Jacob Rochefort. Team staff includes head coach Tony Saczawa, assistants Ken Hunter and Mark Ceccanese, and manager Lum Ceccanese.

Submitted to BayToday.ca