June 5, 2015 League 1 Ontario--Oakville Blue Devils Goes Straight To The Top (from League 1 Ontario press release)
Oakville Blue Devils Goes Straight To The Top . Fri Jun 5 Written By: Kelly, Tim Oakville Blue Devils head coach Duncan Wilde insists he doesn’t want to sound brash but he’s not surprised at how well his undefeated team is playing. The Blue Devils, new to League 1 Ontario, are off to a four-win, one-draw start and are co-leaders with Vaughan Azzurri with 13 points after just five games. Both teams have identical records and are also plus-nine in goal difference though Oakville has scored 13 goals to Vaughan’s 11 goals. “We did some scouting of the league last season before we moved over from the PDL (Player Development League) and there are obviously some big differences from the structure, travel and eligibility of the players and so on. But I’m not surprised at how well we’ve been playing,” said Wilde. “We did come from a very competitive environment with the PDL where we had been playing since 2008 so we’re used to assembling squads that consist of a mixture of high school graduates and college players and home-based players. It’s a nice blend of one or two players who have been with us for a while that are home-based who don’t go away to school, some kids who are getting ready to go away to university, one or two new players and a collection of boys who we recruited out of the Oakville program,” added Wilde. Because of a rule difference between PDL where as many as nine internationals can play on a team and League 1 Ontario, where the number of internationals is limited to three, Wilde said it was an ideal time for change. “We’ve brought up the best players from the U-20’s from last year into the first team and it’s worked out well for us. We thought they were ready, we had intended not to use quite as many import players this season; every three years or so we have a catchment group that moves up,” he said. That mix seems to be the right blend for success. Leading the line right now is striker Anthony Doran who has potted five goals and is joint top league scorer with Vaughan’s Joey Cicchillo. Edoardo Filice has scored two goals for the Blue Devils while single goals from Adrian Butters, Anthony Novak, Bradon Culver, Christian Kusiewicz, Filipe Vilela, Jordan Roberts, Taylor McNamara and Tyler Wason. Wilde said a big difference from last year to this year has been the age of the players and where they come from. He said that in the PDL he was forced to field an older squad that had a more international flavour. Wilde said he is down to two internationals since one of his internationals has gone back to Italy to play pro soccer. “That is probably the biggest change from previous seasons,” said Wilde. “It looks like we’re on the right track but obviously it’s very early. We’re just pleased and excited with our start but understand it’s a long league that goes to October but there are moving parts for everybody,” added Wilde. “It’s a good start for us, a good start for Vaughan, and I fully expect TFC to rebound with some good results, they’ll start to rebound. It’s a long season and I fully expect to see five or six teams fighting for the league title come October.” Oakville Blue Devils hosts Kingston Clippers in League1 Ontario league play at their home grounds of Sheridan College this Sunday June 7th, 4 p.m. kickoff. The Devils host ANB Futbol on June 17 in L1 Cup play, at the River Oaks Turf in Oakville, 8:45 p.m. kickoff.
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