The St. Clair men's varsity soccer team wrapped up their regular season schedule on Wednesday afternoon when they travelled to Sarnia to take on the Lambton Lions and made St. Clair men's soccer history in the process.
Despite playing the last 65 minutes down a man due to a red card the Saints came away with a hard earned 4-2 win. With the win, St. Clair clinched the OCAA West Division regular season title. It is the first time in St. Clair's history that they have won the very tough and competitive division featuring such soccer powerhouses as Humber, Sheridan, Mohawk and Fanshawe. St. Clair ended the regular season with a record of 6-1-1 for a total of 19 points. With the first place finish the Saints have earned a first round playoff bye and host a quarterfinal match on Saturday, October 20 against the winner of the match between the East Division fourth and fifth place teams. The game will be played at the United Communities Credit Union Complex in Amherstburg with the time and opponent to be announced.
St. Clair never trailed in the match against Lambton. They went up 1-0 on a goal by Brian Santos (Cardinal Carter) in the 12th minute. It was Santos's eighth goal of the season in eight games which tied him for first overall in the OCAA goal scoring race. Lambton made the score 1-1 at the 23 minute mark before Gabriel Poulino (Catholic Central) made it 2-1 for the Saints at the beginning of the second half in the 49th minute. Poulino made it 3-1 just four minutes later. Lambton did not let up and made it 3-2 for the Saints in the 59th minute. Poulino sealed the game with his third goal of the game at the 86 minute mark to make it 4-2 for St. Clair. With the hat trick Poulino moved into a tie for third in the OCAA scoring race with seven goals in six games played. It was not a pretty win for St. Clair but it was a difficult match playing 75 percent of the game shorthanded.
St. Clair is currently the top ranked team in the OCAA and just moved up in the national rankings to the number nine spot in Canada. It is the first time ever that St. Clair has been ranked first in Ontario and the first time they have ever cracked the national top 10.
Source: St. Clair College