It was not the result that the Niagara Knights men's soccer program was hoping for when they stepped on the pitch on Friday afternoon. The Knights fell 3-0 to the Algonquin Thunder in the OCAA Semi-Final of the 2016 Belairdirect OCAA Men's Soccer Championship.

The contest can largely be broken up into thirds. Niagara controlled play for the first thirty minutes of the match, but were unable to get on the board. The next 30 minutes were fairly even until Algonquin scored in the 57th minute of the match to take a 1-0 lead. The final thirty minutes were controlled by the Thunder, as the Knights tried to exert pressure but were unable to breakthrough the Algonquin backline.

After surrending the first goal, the Knights left themselves vulnerable trying to push for the equalizer. Algonquin continued to press the backline with a strong counter attack with so many Knights pressing forward. The Thunder added goals in the 70th and 82nd minutes to build an insurmountable 3-0 lead. "We didn't come to this tournament to lose," said Head Coach Frank DeChellis. "Seeing our guys throw themselves forward to tie it up was not surprising, we just needed a little more discipline doing it.

Despite the result, DeChellis was pleased with the level of play his players brought to the match. "We played with the expectation that we would score the opening goal and going down 1-0 deflated our group," added DeChellis. 

Defender David Fimiak (St. Catharines) was named the player of the game for the Knights.

Niagara still has one more game remaining in the season, as they will now compete in the OCAA bronze medal match tomorrow against the loser of the second semi-final between George Brown and Humber. It will be the first time in Knights soccer program history that they will play for an OCAA medal. Kick-off is at 12pm at the Redeemer University College's outdoor field.