The Humber’s men indoor soccer team won its 17th gold medal at the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) final after defeating the George Brown Huskies on penalties.
It was a golden weekend for Humber indoor soccer teams, as the women’s indoor soccer team also won gold earlier in the day against the Centennial Colts.
Humber’s midfielder Jason Alvarado, who is in his last year of school, said after the final this gold medal felt more special than the previous ones.
“I asked the guys to play for me for this last game because it means a lot to me, what these guys did for me,” he said. “The guys gave me a good last season as well.”
The Hawks made the OCAA semifinals by sweeping their championship group on March 6.
Humber’s first obstacle was the Conestoga Condors who finished second in their group behind the Huskies in the pool A championship group on March 6.
The semifinal was a repeat of last year’s soccer and indoor soccer finals, where the Condors won the gold at the OCAA soccer championship and the Hawks took the indoor soccer tournament.
The semifinal game started with a very incisive and aggressive Condors who pressured Humber’s passes and ball possession, making the team very imprecise at the start of the game.
This allowed Conestoga to create clear scoring chances throughout the first 10 minutes of the game. The Hawks were being overrun defensively by the Condors’ attackers who were finding holes in the Hawks’ defensive line.
Humber’s goalkeeper Peter Sheberstov began with his outstanding performance early in the game and kept the score tied following multiple chances by the Condors.
Sheberstov, a first-year student, was a key player in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) final, making as many as five saves during the first half.
While Conestoga dominated most of the game, Humber managed to challenge Conestoga goalkeeper Predrag Jovivic’s goal but was unable to score, leading to a 0-0 draw at halftime.
Humber tried to turn things around in the second half, however, the Condors kept attacking and generating dangerous opportunities at Sheberstov’s goal by taking rebounds or by recovering the ball on Humber’s side of the field and finding an open player in many attacks.
The final 10 minutes of the second half were back-to-back with both teams making defensive errors and counterattacks that made both teams’ goalkeepers the main reasons for the scoreless draw.
In the extra periods, which are ruled by the golden-goal rule, neither team created decisive goal opportunities since most shots were always blocked by defenders, meaning the game had to be decided on a penalty shootout
The Hawks started by scoring on its first penalty, Conestoga defender Saab Kohar hit his shot on the crossbar, giving Humber the initial advantage.
The team was relentless managing the advantage on the shootout even when Conestoga didn’t miss the rest of the penalties.
Humber’s midfielder Daniel Prieto was the one in charge of scoring the decisive penalty, which he did and gave the Hawks the pass to the OCAA final.
Sheberstov said in an interview that while he was pretty happy with his performance, it wasn’t just him the reason for winning.
“Everyone always pushes to do their best,” he said. “I was mentally prepared, and I was physically ready.”
In the final, Humber faced the Huskies who defeated the Fanshawe Falcons in their semifinal.
The Hawks opened up the scoring just before the second minute after a long-range shot by Christian Keshishian, and from then on, the team defended near its area trying to counterattack, while the Huskies had ball possession but didn’t create any danger opportunities to beat Sheberstov.
Humber took the lead into halftime.
Humber kept the Huskies at bay during the second half, however, on a confusing and controversial decision after a ball dispute at Humber’s area, the referee awarded a penalty to George Brown who tied the score with 10 minutes left of the game.
After George Brown’s goal, both teams cancelled each other out thanks to both defensive lines that sent the game to extra time.
The first extra period was more of the same until Humber had a perfect chance to win the gold in the dying seconds, but the Huskies goalkeeper pulled off a fantastic save to deny the Hawks from scoring.
The Huskies had the clearest chance to score in the second period in the final minute thanks to a long-distance shot that hit the right post of the net, forcing the OCAA final to be decided on penalty shootout.
Both teams scored three out of four shots before getting into the fifth shot when George Brown missed their last shot, giving the Hawks a match point. Just as in the semis, Prieto kicked the decisive penalty.
He said after the final what his thoughts were when walking towards the penalty spot before the determinant shot that gave Humber the gold medal.
“The priority was to stay calm, trust in my own skills and to know what I’m capable of,” Prieto said.
He also highlighted the team’s reaction against adversity during both games since it was key to not decaying and staying focused on the main objective.
Prieto scored and unleashed the joy of the Humber players who celebrated their defence of last year’s championship.
Humber’s defender Luca Pinto was given the OCAA MVP award while Peter Sheberstov received the all-star award.
Men’s indoor soccer coach Michael Aquino congratulated his team after moving on from the two battles that gave Humber another gold medal.
“It's a collective team effort and the guys did really, really well,” Aquino said. “It's not easy to win an indoor championship.”
He said he will continue at Humber for the next season and looks forward to the future.
The Condors completed the championship podium by defeating the Fanshawe Falcons 3-2 to win the bronze medal.
The Hawks earned its 17th indoor soccer gold medal, keeping its dominance intact and stood as the winningest team in the province.
For Alvarado, the end couldn’t have been better, but what he will keep more than any medal will be the friendship and family he has built with his teammates.
“Those guys, they just brought me in and they acted like a bunch of little brothers to me,” Alvarado said. “It's just a surreal feeling.”
