St. Benedict Bears Senior Boys Soccer Team completed a fantastic season June 6 – 8 at the OFSAA “A” Championships in Timmins, Ontario. After an undefeated season locally in Sudbury (winning the “A” division city championship), St. Benedict won NOSSA versus Franco Cite in convincing fashion on May 31st. At OFSAA, St. Benedict posted a round robin record of 2 wins and 2 ties, good for 1st place in Group A. In the Quarter-Finals, St. Benedict defeated Glengarry Secondary School 4-2 on goals from Shawn Wilcox (with 3) and Brandon Moxam (1). Unfortunately, the undefeated season came to a halt in the semi-final (Saturday morning) versus private school Ridley College from St. Catharines. Battered and bruised, the Bears dropped a 4-0 decision to their opponents. In the bronze medal game (with numerous players injured and/or in different positions), the Bears lost a tight 2-1 decision to London Christian private school. The Bears finished their 2013 season with a record of 11 wins, 2 losses (only on the last day of the season), and 4 ties – good enough for a 4th overall ranking in the province of Ontario. This is the greatest result for boys soccer in school history. St. Benedict teacher and coach Giuseppe Politi stated, “All in all, it was a positive result for the team, the program, the school, and the city. If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that we would finish top 4 in Ontario I certainly would been ecstatic. Looking back, in the group stage we ran into some trouble finishing off opponents (gave up a few leads). This didn’t let our starters get the rest they needed to last through 3 days of intense competition (7 games total). In the end, it caught up to us on Saturday morning. We just didn’t have the gas or capacity to keep up to more-balanced and fresh opponents in Ridley College (St. Catharines) or London Christian. Both George Urso (co-coach) and I are extremely proud of this squad and its accomplishments this season. We certainly overachieved in the group stage (considering the number of competitive players we have on our team, compared to the other teams at the tournament). A lot of our students played beyond their means and that should be recognized. It’s a bit frustrating to know that we could have won the bronze if we were a bit more fresh. That said, the boys should be proud of what they’ve accomplished (best result in school history) and it was a great student-athlete experience for the entire team. Hopefully, we’ll get another opportunity to showcase our program at next year’s championships.”