St Catherine
Standard: Miracle at Roma Park
by Winnipeg Fury
Miracle at Roma Park
Wolves slip into playoffs then win
championship; knock off Supra for title
Alison Rogers
The Standard
St. Catharines Roma Wolves won their second Canadian Professional
Soccer League title in four years on a rain-soaked field Sunday.
This
time, they did it the hard way, registering three weekend wins as hosts of the
league finals at Roma Park. The Wolves made it a Cinderella season with a 1-0
overtime win over Toronto Supra.
"It was very tough -- you had the top
four teams in the league coming together this weekend," said Dan Gallagher, a
Wolves' defender who was named most valuable player for his efforts in shutting
down Supra star Samuel Afriyie.
"He's an awesome player and he's always
caused us trouble," added Gallagher, who took a ball off the face late in the
second half of overtime, but was never caught out of position.
John
Sozio, in his fifth season with the Wolves, one-timed a clearing header under
the crossbar past Supra goalkeeper Garrett Caldwell in the 117th minute to
clinch the Rogers Cup CPSL championship.
"It was a clearing volley from
a corner and he hit it -- it was a rocket," said Gallagher, admiringly.
It's the first time Sozio has scored a game-winning goal for Roma,
although he notched five goals this season.
"I was wishing it was going
to hit the net," recalled Sozio, who played the entire game against Toronto.
Sozio said it helped the Wolves "a lot" to be playing at home. Despite
the groundskeepers' best efforts, both teams struggled to find their footing on
the wet turf.
Gary McGuchan, who was the hero for Roma with the lone
goal in their 1-0 semifinal win over Ottawa Wizards Saturday, had four chances
to score in the first half, but couldn't capitalize. Sam Borgh also bounced a
header off the crossbar as the Wolves dominated the first 45 minutes.
St. Catharines finished fifth among the 12 teams in the league and had
to defeat fourth-place Montreal Dynamites in a wild-card playoff game Friday
night (2-1) for the right to play in the semifinals. Saturday afternoon, the
Wolves defeated the first-place Wizards for the fourth time this season. (The
Wolves were stripped of their 1-0 League Cup semifinal win over Ottawa after the
Wizards protested the eligibility of two Roma players.)
With three games
over three days, Roma coaches Lucio Ianiero and Carmen DeRose had to make
liberal use of substitutes throughout the weekend.
Gallagher said the
tight-knit unit come together even more as a team.
"We're not just a
team, we're a family," said Gallagher. "We had a couple of bad games and got a
bit unlucky, but we pulled together towards the end,. We proved we're one of the
top teams in the league and in Canada."
THE SCOOP
Wolves 1 Supra
0 (OT)
Standard Star of the Game: St. Catharines defender Dan Gallagher.
For St. Catharines Roma Wolves: John Sozio, 117th minute; shutout by
Dino Perri.
For Toronto Supra: No scoring, but goalkeeper Garrett
Caldwell was named outstanding player.
Consolation final: Toronto
Olympians 5 Ottawa Wizards 2.
Semifinals (played Saturday): Toronto
Supra 3 (Samuel Afriyie 2, Michele LiLuca) Toronto Olympians 2 (Courtny Denis,
Elvis Thomas) OT; St. Catharines 1 (Gary McGuchan, 42nd minute) Ottawa 0.
CPSL AWARDS
Rookie of the year: Kevin Nelson, Ottawa Wizards.
Best defensive player: Kurt Ramsey, North York Astros
Goalkeeper
of the year: Brian Bowes, Toronto Olympians and George Azcura, Toronto Croatia
(tie).
Most valuable player: Abraham Osman, Ottawa Wizards.
Coach of the year: Zoran Jankovic, Montreal Dynamites
Top
scorer: Nelson, 23 goals.
Best discipline record: Durham Flames
Best referee: Amato De Luca, Toronto.
.
.