By Larry Moko
For the first time ever two Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic high school teams have qualified in the same year for the highest level of OFSAA boys' soccer competition.
On Tuesday, both the St. John Henry Newman Cardinals and the Bishop Ryan Celtics won their respective Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference AAA semifinal playoffs.
Those two league rivals will meet May 29 at Newman for the GHAC title, with only seeding for the provincial tournament at stake.
Newman --- silver-medal winners at OFSAA for the past two years --- earned a return trip by downing the visiting White Oaks Wildcats, 3-0. Bishop Ryan gained its berth by defeating the Loyola Hawks, 3-2 in Oakville.
This year's 20-team OFSAA tournament will be held June 5-7 in Kingston.
"It's still an important game in some ways," Newman coach Gerry Moretuzzo said of the GHAC final. "It's a mind-set game. And it's a continue-to-move-forward-with-positive-attitude-game. That's how we'll take it."
The second-place Celtics defeated the first-place Cardinals, 2-0, during the regular schedule but Newman prevailed, 4-3, in the league finale. The Cardinals and Celtics have faced each other in four consecutive city finals.
Against the Halton Public board representatives from White Oaks, Newman broke a scoreless tie in stoppage time after 40 minutes on a header by Massimo Cuda.
"Luckily we scored then because it gave us a better feeling going into the half," Moretuzzo said. "So that first goal was important."
The Cardinals then went ahead 2-0 when Miles Phillips chased down a ball before it went out of bounds at the end line. He then crossed a pass to Bohdan Zuzaskyy who scored.
Jaxson Iaquinto capped the scoring after some hard work on the play to gain control of the ball by Tatenda Maningi.
The Cardinals also defeated White Oaks in GHAC playoffs last year, 3-2, at Newman.
White Oaks coach Tomislav Zadro said the plan was to try to slow Newman down.
"I thought we did a good job of that," he said. "They are a very fast-paced team. They're well organized -- a soccer powerhouse school in the GTA."
Anthony Villella was in goal for the shutout.
"We worked hard for this," said Phillips, one of Newman's fourth-year veteran leaders. "It's a great feeling, obviously."
Phillips previously accepted an invitation for expense-paid training with club teams in Italy. He also has suited up locally for League 1 entries.
Said Moretuzzo: "Miles has played fullback for us in previous years. He's so athletic. He's fantastic at marking and taking top players out of the game.
"This year, we asked him to play left half and be more attack minded. He's now comfortable in the role. In the playoffs he's been one of our top players offensively, getting balls in from down the wing. The bonus is he's scored a couple of goals. He has really elevated his game."
The Celtics got goals by Lucas Underhill, Marko Josipovic and Tevin Clarke en route to their win over Loyola.
Photos by R.F. (Bob) Butrym, RFB Sport Photography
More photos on the HWCDSB Athletics Facebook page here
