May 6, 2018 League 1 Ontario--Rocket Robin's three game weekend report for Waking The Red (by Rocket Robin)
League 1 Ontario Game of the Week by Rocket Robin
Result and details of the Sunday May 5, 2018 League 1 Ontario match between Oakville Blue Devils and Unionville Milliken SC
played at Sheridan College in Oakville at 4:00pm.
13 min...OBD Anthony Novak GOAL...Novak finds himself with another OBD player all alone in the edge of the 6 yard box and
turns and fires ball into center of net over goalie Lucas Birnstingl. The reason this play wasn't called offside
as a UM player attempted to clear the ball but he shot it off another UM player at about 15 yards and the ball deflected
back to the two players in the open.
Final Score:...Oakville Blue Devils.....1.....Unionville Milliken SC.......0.......
Attendance was about 120 on this mild but rainy day. Sheridan College has no stadium lights which means they can't hold
night games but they do play in a covered stand so after sitting in the rain last night this was a blessing for
my making notes. Even if the wind drives the rain under the roof, the seats aren't number so we can just move back
a few rows. I can't do that at BMO Field!
OBD had a strong edge in play in the first half with much of the game in the UM end.
Karman Saini earned the shutout for OBD. This was a gutsy move as on the bench was 2016 Goaltender of the Year while
with Woodbridge Matt George. George played the majority of the games last year. A league official said he expected
this Unionville-Milliken game would be the toughest one on their schedule. He had a few key stops to make but was well
shielded by his defenders and the inaccuracy of UM shooters.
Fans were all over referee Kuizan Weekes on every call and non-call that went against OBD. He had outcarded OBD 6-3
in Yellows. As if to make amends he gave out two Red cards at 96 minutes both against UM players in a bizarre dust-up
inside the OBD box while waiting for a UM freekick to the right of the box. I thought there were about 120 in attendance.
Oakville opens the season with two wins in two games. With six of the fourteen league fixtures played so far ending
in ties they are the only team with a perfect record although both their games have been at home.
Unionville-Milliken SC is a new team in the L1O Men's League although their Women's team started action last year.
Their Men's team was created by bringing in the club's youth organization (located in Markham which is directly north
of the Toronto suburb of Scarborough) and the owner of York Region Shooters of the outlawed Canadian Soccer League.
I made sure I said hello as I hadn't seen them for five years as the L1O started up in 2014 after a year's delay
(that's why I had patience with the new CanPrem League). I asked owner Tony De Thomasis if this was a sudden decision
and he answered he had been planning this since last summer. There were four players playing today I recognized from
his team in 2013. York Region Shooters won the CSL Championship last year. It must have come as a surprise as there
are still some current broken links on their website but there is no YRS operating in their league. I'm not up on the
Star Wars movie franchise of switching sides but I was thinking this was comparable to the NASL New York Cosmos suddenly
being granted an MLS team although over the years MLS has admitted a handful but Cosmos would have been biggest.
I caught two other L1O games this weekend. Toronto Skillz rebounded from a 5-0 loss last week against Oakville with
a stunning 1-0 over Vaughan Azzurri on the road on Saturday night. Tim Mahabir rocketed a freekick down the middle
from 30 yards that sailed over the player wall and through the upraised hands of goalie Praveen Ahilan and just under
the bar. Vaughan dominated the game but their shots were mostly off target. Their numerous freekicks were sent into
the wall, wide, or skied over the net.
Skillz were hanging on at the end getting the benefit of two goals called back for offsides. Five minutes of injury
time was deservedly added and in injury time there were three Skillz players rolling around on the field at the same
time 30 yards apart. Peter Lyczywek earned the shutout.
Skillz opened last year with an 0-12-0 record and waited until August 13th for their first win and ended with
a 4-18-0 record.
I was able to clear up with Azzurri staff that their new facilities opening at the end of June is NOT the same
location as the York 9 CanPrem planned stadium. Both are on Kirby Road between Keele and Jane (ie somewhat less
than 3 km apart).
A tweet I received said the night game of Darby FC against Sigma FC was cancelled because of the high winds.
It was at the Whitby Soccer Dome !? Today details were provided that the dome roof hadn't blown off but was
damaged inside. Light standards attached to the ceiling had fallen. I switched to Plan B which was to catch
North Mississauga against Pro Stars FC at Hershey Centre Field #2. Number 1 had a dome...yep looked alright
but...that's what Sigma FC uses and the Panthers use #2 open air. So the game starts and down comes a misty
rain and it eventually turns into a torrential downpour driving the 150 fans down to 60 by the start of the
second half. Result was another surprise as Pro Stars earned a 2-2 tie. They were the last place team
in the league last season with only one win.
Triston Watson opened the scoring at 27 minutes for NMP (he scored the lone goal in last week's win against
Alliance United). Aleksander Zwierzynski scored at 42 and 56 minutes for Pro Stars but Rahim Thorpe responded
at 59 minutes right in the strongest of the rain. I had finessed my way across the field to cower under
the DJ tent with my notebook (that's a pen and paper kids--not a computer).
Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca
Twitter @RocketRobin01
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