The Men's Varsity Indoor Soccer team travelled to North York, ON to the the Sting Dome at Seneca College to compete in the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) Regional Tournament on Wednesday, March 4.
The team has been training since September in preparation for this tournament in which the top two teams from each pool qualify for the OCAA Provincial Championships. The team competed in a Men's League in Barrie in the winter and finished 3rd in their division scoring over 25 goals during their season. They have been practicing weekly and taking part in strength and conditioning sessions with strength and conditioning coach Taylor Bazinet from Peak Performance.
Under the new leadership of Head Coach Mark Colvin and Assistant Coach Robin Davies, the team has been working hard on building their program and finding their new identity as a team.
They faced tough competition with Humber, Seneca, UTM and Confederation all in their pool. They suffered 6-0 losses to Humber, Seneca and UTM.
They came out all cylinders blazing against the Confederation Thunderhawks and scored a goal in less than two minutes. JohnMark Merraro was able to beat his defender to get out of the defensive end and played a great ball to Noah Caruana who made a diagonal run onto the ball down the right wing. Caruana played a centering pass to Chris Bettencourt who was streaking down the middle of the field, steps ahead of his defender. Bettencourt made no mistake and calmly placed the ball past the Thunderhawks goalkeeper. Unfortunately, they were not able to hold onto that lead for long and the Thunderhawks proved too much to handle defeating the Thunderwolves 4-1 in the end.
Despite the scoreboards, the Thunderwolves were able to put pressure on some of these top rated teams, creating scoring opportunities and frustrating teams when they weren't able to break the Thunderwolves down. The Thunderwolves played hard every game and kept their heads high.
This team is led by fourth year captain Chris Bettencourt, whose composure, outstanding skill and leadership provides the foundation for the team. He is supported by veteran players Noah Caruana, Shane Tonkonog, John Mark Merraro, Mo Rashid, Drew Glassford and Kare Adeleye.
Connor Chowen joined the team as a Rookie this year but has four years of Varsity Rugby experience at Brock University. He stepped up for the team taking on the goalkeeper position. Coming from a background in rugby, Chowen is a brave and physical goalkeeper who never shies away from contact in around his penalty area. And, while the team is in possession, Connor utilizes his great technical ability to jump up into the attack as a 6th outfield player, creating numerical advantages across the field for the squad. First year players Clay Elzinga and Thomas Sosa were able to contribute greatly to the offence of the team and first year defender Yuvraj Bakshi was a solid and dependable defender for the team.
Unfortunately, several of the Thunderwolves will be graduating after this season but with new coaches and a new direction for the team, we are excited to see where this program goes!
[Photo]: Chris Bettencourt