Make it five in a row for the Niagara College men's soccer program, as Saturday, September 30th saw the team defeat the visiting Lambton Lions 5-1 at Youngs SportsPlex in Welland. Five different players, including three rookies, found the score sheet for the Knights attack.
The red hot Knights have scored the second most goals in the OCAA (most in the West), while allowing the third fewest in the province thus far in 2017.
Saturday saw the goals from Alex Latham (Welland), Carlos Williams (St. Catharines), Noah DiEgidio (Welland), Eric Woodland (St. Catahrines), and Zach DeWeerd (Waterdown). For DiEgidio, Woodland, and DeWeerd, the goals marked their first OCAA tallies.
The Knights out chanced their Sarnia-based opponents 31-5, and held a shots on goal advantage of 11-4. But despite the discrepancy on the scoresheet, Knights head coach Frank DeChellis was not entirely satisfied with his team's effort.
"We failed to bury our chances in the first 20 minutes which caused stress going into our halftime break at 1-0. Mentally, we broke away from our game a little with some guys trying to fix things themselves. It's frustrating on the field and things ca get sloppy. We need to fix that if we want to still be playing in late October. We won the game and I hesitate to taint that moment, but somebody has to temper our enthusiasm."
DeChellis however was quick to praise the performance of his defensive core unit. "I need to point out the play our defenders today. Quinton Leone, Charlie Does, Anu Makinwa and Andrew Currie did the job again. They are so inhospitable in our end of the field, I sometimes forget what nice young men they are."
Veteran third year striker Carlos Williams scored the Knights second goal in the contest, bringing his Knights career goals scoring record to 13. The tally was Williams' fourth of the 2017 season. The former Governor Simcoe standout was named Niagara College athlete of the week for his performance.
The win moves the Knights to 5-1 on the season and firmly into second place in the OCAA West Division. The team sits just one point behind the division leading Fanshawe Falcons (5-0-1). Up next Niagara will travel to Hamilton to take on the Mohawk Mountaineers on October 3rd. The team will then return home for their final three games of the season against the Falcons (Oct. 11), St. Clair Saints (Oct. 14) and Redeemer Royals (Oct. 18).
