By Larry Moko
A pair of Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic teams made their presence felt at the 2025 OFSAA boys' soccer tournament in Kingston.
Both the Bishop Ryan Celtics and the St. John Henry Newman Cardinals brought home medals from the 20-team, three-day, AAA high school competition.
Bishop Ryan captured the bronze while Newman took antique bronze for fourth.
"It was a great experience to have both teams represent the Hamilton Catholic school board and show that we're two of the top teams in the province," Celtics coach Joe Cvitak said.
It was during pool play and quarter-final playoffs that the two Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference entries stood out the most. Newman won its first five starts, outscoring the opposition 16-0 en route.
The Cardinals continued to soar in the first playoff round -- topping Toronto's John A. Mcdonald, 3-0 -- before finally losing, 4-3, at the hands of the eventual gold-medal winning St. Martin Mustangs of Mississauga.
Bishop Ryan also finished first in its pool with a 3-1 record. The east Mountain school then blanked Kingston's Holy Cross Saints, 5-0, in a quarter-final.
"That was the best game I've seen our team play," Celtics midfielder and captain Maksim Pasilak said.
BR's championship hopes ended the next morning, however, with a 3-1 loss to the silver-medal winning Mother Teresa Spartans of London.
"We fell a little short of where we wanted to be," Cvitak said. "We felt we had the team to go all the way this year."
It was the first medal at OFSAA for BR since Cvitak guided the Celtics to an antique bronze finish in 2013.
Cvitak pointed out that key injuries in the playoff rounds and playing with just 10 men on a couple of occasions made the situation difficult for BR.
"Injuries took a toll," he said. "Two of our starters didn't play in the semis. We still gave them a good game, though."
In the bronze-medal showdown, BR got a pair of goals by Tino Angelini in a 3-1 come-from-behind victory over Newman (OFSAA silver-medal winners in both 2023 and '24).
"After losing the semifinal, everybody was devastated," Cvitak said. "But you have to get momentum back. You have one more game to play. Pride was on the line."
A few weeks ago Newman won the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic final over BR, but the Celtics bounced back to capture the GHAC title in a rematch against the Cardinals. The Celtics also won the regular-season meeting with the first-place Cardinals.
Said Cvitak: "We beat Newman three times this year ... all close games. We left no doubt who the best team in the city and the region is."
Led by the scoring prowess of Angelini and Tevin Clarke, BR connected for 17 goals in Kingston.
"But the driving force, like it's been all year, was the midfield," the Celtics coach said. "(Maksim) Palisak, (Lucas) Spinosa and (Lucas) Underhill controlled from start to finish. And our back line played fantastic. It wasn't quite as strong as it was during pool play because I had to switch rotations around (due to player injuries). That kind of affected us."
Cvitak and Cardinals coach Gerry Moretuzzo both previously won gold medals as players with Newman.
"Kudos to Newman as well," Palisak said. "They are such an amazing team. As much as they are our rivals, I do have respect for them."
Palisak, incidentally, recently accepted a soccer scholarship offer from Western Illinois University and will be playing for the Leathernecks next fall. The NCAA Division I school is located in Macomb, Ill. It competes in the Ohio Valley Conference.
"To beat your rivals one last time before stepping away from high school soccer is pretty memorable," Palisak said."And the fact that we kind of battled back after losing to get a third-place medal for sure means a lot."
Palisak, though, is eager to follow his dream of playing at the highest level of soccer.
"I've worked hard for this throughout me life," he said.
The BR coach said Palisak is a great talent.
"To me, Max was the best player in the league this year," Cvitak said. "He dominated. Without him as a kind of general in the middle, we wouldn't have gone as far.
"He has unbelievable vision on the field and distributes the ball well."
Cvitak said all of BR's Grade 12 players deserve credit for stepping up this season. In addition he praised the team's assistant coaches for their significant contributions to the team's success.
Photos by R.F. (Bob) Butrym, RFB Sport Photography
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