Colts stung hard by Seneca in 5-1 thumping

Kailen Murphy and Mahmoud Mirsadeghi each had two goals, as the Seneca Sting demolished the slumping Centennial Colts 5-1 in men’s soccer action on Wednesday night at Birchmount Stadium. 

 The loss extended Centennial’s losing streak to five games as it fell to 0-5 while Seneca improved its record to 3-1. 

 With only six games remaining and the Colt’s sitting dead last in the Central East division, coach Julian Carr is not optimistic about his team’s chances. 

“Right now we are sitting on the outside without a hope and a prayer to make the playoffs,” said Carr after the game, while reflecting on his team’s lacklustre performance. 

“I coach 12 year-old kids who put in more of an effort than we have in the last two or three games.”

Seneca thoroughly dominated the Colts in the first half placing relentless pressure on their undersized defence.

Centennial goaltender Blake Williams made a great dive to his left early on to deny the Sting a great opportunity. 

But on 25 minutes, midfielder Shawn Tatham, making a great run up the right side, crossed it into the box to a sliding Murphy, who put it into the open goal to give Seneca the 1-0 advantage.    

Just 11 minutes later Mirsadeghi scored on a rebound, after a fine save by Williams, to put Seneca up 2-0.

The Sting increased it’s lead to 3-0 at the 43rd minute when Murphy tipped in a low corner kick past a sprawling Williams to earn his second goal of the evening.

With his team down losing control of the game Williams was replaced with rookie netmider Philip Liscio, to give Williams the opportunity to help at the forward position.

According to the coach, it was also to make sure the veteran goaltender would not have to feel hung out to dry by his teammates. 

“[He was replaced] also to keep him from exploding [at his teammates],” said Carr. “He was about to come unglued and rightfully so.  After the third goal I would have come unglued if I was him.” 

But even with William’s 6-foot-3 presence up front, Centennial continued to fall apart as Mirsadeghi got loose again, walked into the box, and hammered a shot into the far corner past Liscio to complete Seneca’s four-goal first half.

Sting goalkeeper Silvano Posca who was not overly tested throughout the match took a hard knock early in the second half while battling for ball possession with a Centennial forward.

He stayed down for a couple of minutes but would get back to his feet relatively unscathed. 

Defender Mitchell DeSouza scored the Colt’s only goal, on 80 minutes, when he quickly jumped on a rebound off a sizzling free kick taken by Williams.

The Colt’s starting goaltender, who is also seen by his coach as the team’s best striker, had a great chance earlier in the half, but was denied by both Posca and the crossbar.

As the game was winding down, forward Jari Martin got the Sting’s fifth marker with a left-footed strike into a gaping net as the Centennial defence got caught up in miscommunication. 

Carr cited a lack of experience as one of the main reasons his group has not responded well thus far in this campaign.  

“To put it quite bluntly we don’t have players.  As cold and as wrong as that might sound we don’t have enough guys who have played at a high enough level to come and play at this level,” he said.

Recruiting able bodies to fill the roster was an arduous and challenging task for him and the rest of the coaching staff.

“Unfortunately all the players we could have fielded this year are all academically ineligible, not eligible yet or concentrating on school.  So unfortunately we feel we have to field players who are of lesser quality,” he said. 

Notes: The Colts will try to put an end to their drought as they square off against Cambrian College this Saturday afternoon at 3pm…the Centennial Women’s soccer team is also winless this season (0-4-0) as they lost 3-1 to Seneca (5-0-0) in an earlier matchup on Wednesday.

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By: Domenic Gratta
Posted: Sep 24 2009 10:03 am
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Filed under: Amateur Soccer Sports
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