MOHAWK 3, ST. CLAIR 2 (FINAL)
The Mohawk men evened their record at 1-1-1 with a 3-2 victory over St. Clair.
Alex Pereira and Colin Dovan put the locals up 2-0 in the first 45 minutes. The score stayed that way for the early part of the second half when Mohawk came out flat and had to rely on first year goalkeeper Alex Miickeloff of Caledonia, who twice came charging off his line to deny St. Clair ace Robert Malbasic from tying a 28 year old record of 47 career goals, set by Peterborough Fleming's Mike Everson, an OCAA Hall of Famer. Grimsby's Adam Petrina seemingly put the game out of reach when he got to a loose ball high in the penalty area and blasted home for a 3-0 Mohawk lead. But St. Clair had other ideas as Brian Santos and Enrique Martinez got two back, but the Saints ran out of time.
Mohawk head coach Richard Bennett said scoring two goals in the first half is not surprising for his team, they just have to keep going and finishing. At the break the coach stressed how important the first ten minutes of the second half would be and as it turned out it was the goalie responsible for keeping the lead. "That was the turning point for us, said Bennett. Alex is playing for the first time at this level and he played like a number one goalkeeper." As for the letdown in the final 15 minutes, the coach noted the idea was to just hold the fort with the next game coming up the next afternoon and the defense simply fell asleep a couple of times, resulting in St. Clair goals. "It was scary, said Bennett, but I was still confident they'd pull it out anyway."
Source: Mohawk College
