THUNDER BAY – Goals were on the minds of the Thunder Bay Chill’s U13 squad., as they took the field on Saturday afternoon.
A day after settling for a 2-2 time against their hometown rival, the Superior Rush, the Chill were looking to put as many balls in the back of the Toronto Azzurri goal as possible, looking to win the goal-differential battle should a spot in Tuesday’s championship game be decided in a tiebreaker.
Eddy Black did his part, scoring three times to lead the Chill to a 9-0 win, the Rush having earlier beaten the Toronto team 6-0 to open the tournament.
“Today we (wanted) to get eight goals and we definitely did that,” said Black, who took a pass own the right side and drilled it past Toronto keeper Dominic Neofotistos in the 16th minute, giving Thunder Bay an early 10 lead.
Ten minutes later Black was fed the ball in the box, extended his leg and slammed it home.
Black’s third goal came in the 49th minute of the 70-minute contest, off a free kick. The ball bounced in front of him, he sidestepped the goaltender and deposited it, the goal putting the Chill up 4-0 at the time.
The 12-year-old said unlike Friday’s match, which saw them take a 2-0 lead into halftime, they kept their focus and worked on improving the outcome, this time with no let-down.
“We did everything better, getting out wide, sending the balls over the top and just being more intense,” said Black, who lifted his shirt after his first goal of the game to reveal, written on a white undershirt, “Why always me?”
Chill coach Neil Carlson said they weren’t about to lose the goal differential battle, but more importantly, he wanted his team to play a complete game, something he hadn’t seen in the first two matches of the Thunder Bay International Invitational.
“We didn’t want to abandon our style of play, so we kept with it. We just asked that they play as a team for 70 minutes and they did that today,” Carlson said.
‘The great thing about that is everybody got on the field, everybody played and was focused and dialed in. We talked about coming together and getting on the road to the finals and we put in the work. Even the U12 players came on the field and impacted the game.”
Joao Neves doubled the Chill lead in the 22nd minute, depositing a free kick from 30 yards out into the Toronto net, giving them a 2-0 lead.
Up 4-0 in the second, the Chill kept the pressure.
Lucas Ianni made it 5-0 in the 51st and just four minutes later Body Scott added a sixth goal and the rout was on.
Neves potted his second of the afternoon at Chapples Field in the 58th and Marcus Glymitsas buried a feed from Rocky Fron in the 65th as the Chill jumped in front 8-0. Cristian Johnson rounded out the scoring in the 69th, pouncing on a ball in the box and beating the overmatched keeper.
The Chill (2-0-1) have Sunday off and take on Winnipeg’s 1v1 Futbol Dreams Academy on Monday at 6:30 p.m., the lone game of the day.
Superior Rush FC (1-0-1) are play8ng Venezia Nettundo Lido from Italy on Saturday night and will play Winnipeg on Sunday at 6:30 p.m.
