CONESTOGA WINS BRONZE MEDAL IN OCAA MEN'S SOCCER

VAUGHAN, Ont. - Conestoga College is the 2011 Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) men's soccer bronze medalists after a narrow 1-0 win over St. Clair College on Saturday at the Ontario Soccer Centre in Vaughan, Ont.

Defender Martin Mielnick scored on a penalty kick early in the second half to give Conestoga its first OCAA medal in men's soccer since it won bronze in 1998.

St. Clair controlled the offensive zone for most of the first half, coming close on a number of occasions to scoring the initial goal. A breakaway opportunity by forward Ronald Mayorga was negated by Conestoga goaltender Joey Frank, with the ball eventually ringing off the goal post.

St. Clair had an opportunity on a free kick at the end of the half, but the game remained scoreless at halftime.

The referee awarded Conestoga a penalty kick early in the second half, which was initially saved by St. Clair goalkeeper Joey Plavetic, but he was ruled to have jumped off the goal line early. Mielnick made good on his second chance, knocking in his rebound to put Conestoga up for good.

Seconds later, St. Clair missed on an opportunity to tie the score, when Jordan Lidia knocked the ball over the Conestoga crossbar.

Conestoga's Aleksandar Radosevic missed on a similar play at the other end, kicking his shot over the St. Clair crossbar.

The Condors went into defensive mode for the rest of the half, as they began to limit St. Clair scoring chances.

The Saints made one last push at the end of the game. Robert Malbasic was hauled down inside the 18 yard box, but Jeff Martins made the save on Brian Santos penalty kick.

St. Clair hit another post towards the end of regulation, but clearly the Saints were snakebitten in this contest.

Nathan Greene of Conestoga and Hamza Mezahi of St. Clair were named players of the game for their respective teams.

Conestoga finished its season with an overall record of 6-4-1, while St. Clair dropped to 5-6-0.

An archive of the game can be seen on SportsLive.ca.

Website: www.ocaa.com/championships/2011-12/soccer

Championship Location
The Soccer Centre
7601 Martin Grove Road
Vaughan, Ontario

Championship Schedule/Results
Friday, October 28
Semi-Finals
Sheridan 1, St. Clair 0 (Final)
Humber 5, Conestoga 0 (Final)

Saturday, October 29
Bronze Medal Game
Conestoga 1, St. Clair 0 (Final)
Gold Medal Game
Humber vs. Sheridan - 3 p.m.

- OCAA -

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Ontario Colleges Athletic Association
Tel: 416-426-7041
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E-mail: bell-webster@ocaa.com