Birds Gone Wild
The Langara Falcons face the Humber Hawks in the national quarterfinal
Wednesday morning the Langara Falcons make their 10th appearance at the CCAA National men’s soccer championship. They will meet the OCAA champion Humber Hawks for the first time since the 2001 gold medal game in Medicine Hat; a game the Hawks won 2-1.
The Falcons earned this berth after finishing with a PACWEST silver medal despite just three wins in the regular season. They upset the high flying Douglas Royals in penalty kicks in the semi-final.
Offensively the Falcons will have to gain plenty of pressure on the Hawks defence and keeper. Rookie Emmanuel Ekeh will need to play a major role after scoring 11 times during the regular season. Secondary pressure and scoring will need to present as well as they will no doubt look to Merlin Fisk or Matias Guedes to fill that need.
On the backend the Falcons will expect plenty of action. Their keepers Kevin Monk and Alex Kalajkzic will need to be sharp and come up with some saves on the Hawks opportunities.
The Hawks (7-1-2) won their seventh Ontario title in nine years and are four time CCAA gold medal champions winning in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016.
During the regular season the Hawks amassed 34 goals and only allowed 13. Their only loss was at home falling 3-2 to George Brown on September 26th. Offensively they are led by Luca Baldassarre and Federico Leal who each scored seven goals. Fourth year player Jaineil Hoilett chipped in with five goals.
On the backend they have rotated three keepers who combined to record two shutouts.
The last time the Falcons faced a team from the OCAA was during the 2006 national championship in which they hosted. The Falcons fell to Algonquin College 4-0 in the national quarterfinal. They would finish fifth that season.
Kick-off on Wednesday is set for 8:30am PST between the Falcons and Hawks in an all-bird matchup.