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It was a packed house for Sunday’s League1 Ontario Semi-Final match at Bronte Athletic Field, as the #2 seeded Blue Devils faced third-placed Markham’s Alliance United. The visitors had the best defensive record for 21 games this season, only allowing 15 goals, while the Blue Devils allowed just one more.
Oakville benefited from a week’s rest, a reward for finishing in the top two at the end of the regular season. Alliance played on weary legs after beating Prostars FC on Thursday night to claim their place in this match. And it showed, especially, as the match drew closer to the full 90.
Alliance rushed out to an early lead through a swift counterattack that caught the Blue Devils on their heels. As should have been expected, it was the Sivananthan brothers connecting on a long diagonal ball across the pitch from Nirun to Atchu. Atchu fed the ball into the path of Artem Tesker. Tesker made no mistake putting his full weight behind a kick that Oakville goalkeeper Lucas Birnstingl got his hands to but was unable to deflect wide of his post. Shocking the home crowd, and suddenly the visitors were up a goal in the 6th minute of play.
Mathew Santos would draw the Blue Devils' level in the 18th minute off of a well-worked give-and-go with the clubs leading scorer Taha Ilyass. Santos, a Loyola grad, streaked across the top of the box from right to left, putting a shot across his body, low and hard back into the bottom right corner of the Alliance goal. United’s mercurial goalkeeper Praveen Alhilan had no chance as his body weight was moving in one direction. Santos hit the ball in the other direction, kissing it off the post and over the line.
In the 35th minute, the Blue Devils took the lead. Mario McLennon stepped up from his right back position to put his foot through a loose ball. His looping kick swung across the face of the goal, and then former Sheridan Bruin Khody Ellis climbed an invisible ladder to beat Ahilan to the ball in mid-flight. As the Alliance keeper went to punch the ball, Ellis was able to nod it passed him and into the wide-open net. It pushed the home side into the lead, allowing the nervous fans at Bronte to take a sigh of relief.
Following the intermission, Alliance came out firing after a fiery half-time talk from Head Coach Ilya Orlov. His team executed his instructions, not allowing Oakville to take so much time on the ball and stepping up their intensity.
It would be Alliance opening the scoring in the second half as they traded barbs with the Blue Devils until the 68th minute. A corner kick soared across the face of goal to Kenny Lioutas on the back post. Lioutas flicked the ball back across the goal to 6’3 defender Sam Gardner. Gardner made no mistake nodding it into the side netting, knotting the score at two goals a piece.
There was a brief scare for the Blue Devils as a moment of miscommunication between centre-back Shaq Lowe and his keeper. It led to a ball being played back to Birnstingl blindly with the keeper out of his goal and Alliance’s Shon Seiglwachs rushing in. Luckily the Oakville keeper was able to recover and cleared the ball out of bounds to relieve the pressure.
However, the Blue Devils weren’t about to let the visitors end their championship dream. Alliance chose to throw the ball deep into the Blue Devils' box. Birnstingl came rushing out of his net to pull it out of the air. He immediately kicked a booming high ball into the Alliance end. As Brandon Duarte went up to meet the ball in the air, he was undercut by a visiting defender for a Blue Devils free kick in the centre circle. On the restart, the ball was played to the sideline where substitution Andra Neptune then played a high ball into the box. Taha Ilyass met it on the far post, pushing it passed Ahilan to put the Blue Devils up 3-2.
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For the final 22 minutes of the match, Alliance would throw everyone forward, including Ahilan at times, to give themselves a chance to tie things back up. Oakville withstood wave after wave of attacks to see out the victory, assuring themselves a place in the League1 Ontario Final.
Following the match, Head Coach Duncan Wilde quickly praised his club’s resiliency, stating, “It’s kind of that refuse to lose the attitude. You know, it’s kind of been in our DNA for years at the Blue Devils. You can never write this team off when they go behind.”
Wilde was delighted with the performances of several players like centre-back Shaq Lowe who he called “immense” after he had to take charge of the back line following an injury to Adam Czerkawski in the second half. Brandon Duarte stood out as he "covered every blade of grass,” and finally, his attacking threats, “he (Taha) dragged their centre-backs all over the place, and Khody Ellis tore them up.”
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The Blue Devils will enjoy five days of recovery before matching up against the undefeated, high-scoring Vaughan Azzurri, on Saturday, Sept. 3, at the Ontario Soccer Centre Stadium. Kickoff is at 1 pm.
If you can't make it to the game you can always tune in and watch on the League1 Ontario YouTube channel where I will once again be providing play-by-play commentary.