Upper Canada College won its fourth consecutive Canadian Accredited Independent Schools’ U13 Boys’ National Soccer Tournament championship on Oct. 25 with a victory over Toronto’s Crescent School.
The tournament was held at UCC last year, when it claimed the national title for the fifth time six years, and last week the Blues travelled to Montreal for a tournament hosted by Lower Canada College and Selwyn House School. UCC was joined by 15 other teams from Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Quebec.
The team met Old Boy Chris Amoah ’14, who’s now a star running back for Laval University’s football team, while it was in Montreal.
UCC went undefeated and allowed just one goal (in the final) in eight games in 2013, and things started much the same way at LCC as the Blues cruised to three shutout victories on Thursday. UCC picked up two more wins on Friday by scores of 2-1 and 2-0 before it played its final preliminary round game against Crescent — a cross-town rival that it tied 1-1 on home turf on Association Day. The two squads tied 2-2, which put UCC in second place in its pool and theoretically gave it a tougher route to the final.
The Blues squared off against Hamilton’s Hillfield Strathallan College in a hotly contested semi-final match that had to go to extra time before either team could score a goal. UCC finally put a ball behind the opposition goalkeeper to claim a 1-0 victory and a spot in the final against Crescent.
The boys, coached by Prep physical and health education teacher and Seaton’s House senior house adviser Gareth Evans, played a tremendous match and scored the tournament-winning goal in the second half to win 2-1 and bring the championship trophy back to UCC.