East York victorious over Malvern

Halil Sahin scored on a penalty kick to lead the East York Collegiate Goliaths junior boys soccer team to a 2-1 victory over the Malvern Black Knights on Wednesday.

Ricky Tran also scored for East York while Lucas Rocks replied with the lone goal for Malvern.

The win gives the reigning city champions a 2-0 record, while the Black Knights fall to 1-1.

“Our team played well together today,” said Goliaths coach George Kyritsis. “We wanted to win badly and we played fair and hard.”

East York was leading 1-0 in the 57th minute when George Syrmopoulos was hauled down from behind in the box, leading to a penalty kick.

Sahin was chosen to shoot, and he converted on the chance to double the Goliath’s lead to 2-0.

Rocks responded with a goal in the 64th minute to trim East York’s lead to 2-1.

From there, the Black Knights played with more intensity, rallying with two shots on goal in the final six minutes.

“It’s pretty rare to get a goal against us,” Kyritsis said. “After they scored, they built up some confidence and put a lot of pressure on us.”

Goliaths goaltender Jordan Tam stopped a Malvern header to preserve the East York victory.

“We had a lot of heart today,” said East York captain Jack Atkinson. “It was freezing

and the other team played well, but we ended up winning because we tried our best.”

Tran was subbed into the game in the 13th minute and made a quick impact two minutes later with the first goal.

The first half was evenly paced as neither team dominated possession.

Atkinson had a number of scoring chances but couldn’t get any quality shots on Malvern’s keeper.

Kyritsis was quick to find some faults in the way his team played on Wednesday.

“We have to be more aggressive next time,” Kyritsis said. “We tend to be passive on the ball compared to other teams.”

Atkinson said the Goliaths needs to work on ball control if they hope to win another city championship.

“It’s one of the most important keys to the game and we didn’t show it today. Next practice, I’m sure our coach is going to trap that down our throats.”

About this article

By: Iain Colpitts
Posted: Sep 30 2009 6:56 pm
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Filed under: High School Sports
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