Sarnia Fury Boys U-10's Play Well in Stratford Tournament
By: Cameron Gibson - Coach/U-10 Sarnia Fury   

The district level boys Sarnia Fury U-10 soccer team travelled to Stratford Ontario to compete in the 8th Annual Festival Cup tournament held at the Army/Navy Veterans field in Stratford. The team played 3 excellent games in 2 days which saw them lose 2 and win their final game but failed to qualify for the playoff round. As a coach you can only hope that your players grasp the concepts and skills that you teach to them and apply them to their game. This past weekend this coach was as happy as any coach could be as his players showed him that they had been listening and learning all along. Each and every player who played gave a complete effort in all 3 games and displayed use of the skills and knowledge that had been given to them. The team earned the respect of the officials and the teams they played against for their competitiveness and their sportsmanship.

    In game one the Sarnia Fury played Heads B10. The Fury squad came out firing on all cylinders taking the play to the Heads team for the first 10 to 12 minutes without letting them out of their own half. Sarnia had numerous scoring opportunities but could not find the back of the net. John Anthony Filia, Sawyer Osborne and Jakob Washington all had great chances but either had their shots deflected wide, go over the bar or stopped by the goalie. At the 13 minute mark the Heads team got their first shot on goal and it was a good one as the rocket shot beat the Fury netminder to the far side of the goal. A second goal was scored on a penalty shot that was awarded when the Fury keeper picked up a ball that was directed back to him by his own player. This was a surprise to all as under the league rules this is permitted but it went against the tournament rules. The half ended with the Heads leading 2-0.

    Sarnia came out strong in the second half as well and again controlled the majority of the play. The defensive tandem of Owen Gibson and Jordan Hawkes kept the Heads from getting any good penetration into the Fury end by getting to any loose balls and clearing them back down field. Josh MacDonald, Troy Hall and Zackarie Hall were terrific in the midfield winning every ball that came to them and distributing the ball well. Jakob Washington scored a highlight reel goal for Sarnia when he redirected a long pass in the air from Troy Hall past the oncoming Heads goalie. He was able to redirect the ball with his head while running on to it and put it past the goalie for an easy finish into the wide open net. Try as they might the Fury team was unable to draw even with the Heads team and the game ended with Sarnia losing 2 - 1.

    In game two Sarnia faced the London North Stars. Once again the Fury came out strong and kept London from getting a shot on goal until the 10 minute mark of the first half. London scored a pretty goal on a good hard shot that beat Mike Zottl to the far side of the goal on a break away. Sarnia kept directing chances at the London goal doing everything right except actually put the ball in the net. London scored their second goal of the game off a scrambled corner kick to put them up 2 - 0 at half time.

   Sarnia took a chance and made a goaltending change at half time putting Owen Gibson in goal to take advantage of his long kicks and Zottl's smart fielding plays. This worked in a sense as the long kicks helped generate more offensive chances by giving Sarnia possession of the ball deeper in the North Stars end. Sawyer Osborne made a couple of great plays carrying the ball and making some great passes for shots. Troy Hall and Trever Forsten had good opportunities to score but were stopped. Trever Forsten was elected to take a penalty shot that was awarded but was stopped by the London goalie who made a good save and held onto the ball. Zackarie Hall was particularly strong in the middle winning every ball that came to him and was especially strong on throw ins. Jordan Hawkes was really strong for Sarnia playing the sweeper position for almost the entire game. London scored on their second shot of the half with 5 minutes to go beating a helpless Fury goaltender with a perfectly placed shot. Despite the excellent effort Sarnia lost 3 - 0.

   Game number three took place the following morning at 8:15. Sarnia played the Erin Heads and knew it would be difficult to advance to the playoff round but played like they were in the finals. After a pep talk by their coaches the Sarnia boys went out and did everything they had spoken about and worked on all season. Buoyed by the return of their top scorer Brock Morgan the Fury came out strong once again. Mike Zottl was extremely strong in goal when called on and was particularly strong coming out of his crease area to clear any balls that got behind the defense and clearing the ball back down the field. Owen Gibson scored 7 minutes into the game jumping up from his defensive position and nailing a shot from 35 yards that beat the Erin Heads goalie cleanly. Sarnia carried the play for 90% of the first half and saw opportunities by John Anthony Filia, Jakob Washington and Troy Hall just came up short of scoring. Sarnia led 1-0 at half time.

   In the second half the Fury carried the play once again from the whistle. Trever Forsten had a glorious chance to put Sarnia up 2-0 but his shot sailed just over the cross bar. After several more good chances a loose ball from a attempted clearing off a corner kick came out to Josh MacDonald who nailed a rolling ball back at the Erin Heads goal. The shot picked the top far corner on the Heads goalie who did not have a chance of stopping it. The Erin Heads did not give up and scored a goal of their own when one of their forwards out worked the Fury defense for a ball and laid a perfectly placed shot past the Fury keeper. Sarnia rebounded by scoring their third goal with 2 minutes left in the game. Some great work in the middle by Trever Forsten got the ball to Sawyer Osborne who did a great job protecting the ball until he could make a pretty pass to Troy Hall who buried the ball into the open net. Sarnia finished the game winning 3 - 1 and drew praise from the Erin Heads coach for our complete team effort against them.

   Due to the group A and B set up of the tournament Sarnia was eliminated due to the other teams in their group finishing with better records. In conversation with the Marshall of the tournament he had nothing but good things to say about our teams effort and sportsmanship shown throughout the two day event as reported to him by the referees who had done our games.

    A special thanks goes out to all of the parents of the players who have done a tremendous job getting the kids to and from the practices and games and assisting the coaches with nets, players benches and drinks and snacks. We would also like to thank the sponsors that helped back our team at BMO, the co-operators- Franco Filia, Dave at Southshore Landscape, Dan at Kimball Tree Service and Freedom 55 Financial- Shannon Kerby. Good job team!