SHAKESPEARE — In the season wrap-up tournament of the Intercounty Minor Soccer League’s U-13 division on Saturday, July 19, St. Pauls overcame an earlier defeat at the hands of short-staffed Kintore, scoring the only goal of the second half and capturing the A-division title.
It was the first loss Kintore had suffered all season, through regular schedule and tournament play. That included three victories over St. Pauls.
The two squads kicked off the wrap-up tournament on Friday evening in Tavistock, with Kintore emerging with a 3-1 victory. The two teams had met just three nights earlier in St. Pauls for regular season play, and Kintore had come from behind on that night to capture a slim 4-3 win.
The tournament resumed Saturday morning, with games held in both Shakespeare and Tavistock. St. Pauls eked out a 3-2 win over Kinkora to keep their hopes alive of advancing to the gold-medal final. But with the A-division tournament encompassing the top four teams from regular season play, they knew it would take a strong next game against Embro to make that happen.
Embro, meanwhile, was giving Kintore all it could handle in their early morning match-up. Kintore jumped out to a 1-0 first-half lead, then padded the lead to 2-0 early in the second. But then Embro bounced a ball off the post and into the Kintore net to make it 2-1.
A foul inside the Kintore defensive zone led to an Embro penalty kick. Later, with time running out, a hand ball just outside the penalty area led to a free kick for Embro from within scoring range. But the Kintore goalkeeper was equal to the task both times, and the final score remained 2-1 for Kintore.
That left Kintore facing fourth-seeded and winless Kinkora for their final preliminary round game. And they continued to roll, shutting out their opponents 4-0.
The real surprise, however, was in the final preliminary round match-up between Embro and St. Pauls. Embro had downed Kinkora 4-0 on Friday evening, and nearly upset Kintore. But those efforts seem to have tired out the Embro squad, as they fell by a disappointing 6-1 count and were relegated to the third-place game.
In the tournament final, St. Pauls knew they were facing yet another fatigued team, as Kintore had been playing the entire three games with just 11 players and no substitutes. And the Kintore line-up included a couple of call-ups from a younger age division, since the U-13 squad has been playing all season with a skeleton crew of athletes.
The first half was even in possession, as well as scoreline. At the whistle, the two teams were knotted at one goal apiece.
In the second half, however, St. Pauls could feel they had begun to wear down their opponents, and they waited for their chance to strike. And it happened, late in the half, with a rocket of a shot from the right forward position following a Kintore giveaway.
In the third-place game, Embro defeated Kinkora by a score of 5-2.
The co-ed Intercounty Minor Soccer League also includes teams from Shakespeare, Mitchell, Thorndale and Tavistock. On Friday and Saturday, also in Shakespeare and Tavistock, those teams played off in the B-division tournament in the U-13 division.