Galileo is the Howe Sound Mens Soccer League (HSMSL) regular season champion after defeating the Dyer Straits 4-1 at Quest University Field on Sunday (March 20).
Galileo has been close to unbeatable this season, losing only one of 13 games this season, and proved why its on top of the league on Sunday, scoring four unanswered goals after falling behind early.
Robbie Nahanee was the man of the match for Galileo, scoring two key goals to help lead his team to victory.
I thought it was a great team game for us and we recovered after a bit of a slow start, Nahanee said. We just had to dig deep and move the ball to beat these guys and we did.
Nahanee admitted he was looking for the hat trick but failed to tickle the twine for the third time in the game.
The guys were trying to set me up to score the third goal and I had some chances, he said. I thought we felt pretty good out there. This is a much faster field than last week and I think weve finally got the rust off after a pretty long break.
Charles Carter opened the scoring roughly 25 minutes into the game to give the Straits the advantage, but Nahanee ricocheted a shot off of a Straits defender to even the game at one. Cristian Oreamuno, the leagues top scorer, added a late goal off of a penalty kick to put Galileo up 2-1 after the first half.
According to Dave Harrison of the Straits, the second half is where his team collapsed.
I thought we played really well in the first half but we were missing nine regular guys, he said. We ran out of steam and had a few unlucky bounces our way. Our goalie Sammie [Dunkley] played really well for us today.
Nahanee tallied again in the second half, blocking a clearing attempt by Dunkley and then booting the loose ball into an empty net. Nico Lopez added a late goal, tipping a shot over Dunkleys head and fooling him to account for the 4-1 final score.
With the win, Galileo improved to 10 wins, one loss and two ties. The Straits fell to six wins, five losses and two ties, good for fourth place in the league.
In other HSMSL action, the Ellis Moving Eagles thumped Zephyr 7-0. Nathan Ellis and Todd Rippon both scored hat tricks for the Eagles, with Alec Macrae picking up a single.
The late game saw Khalsa pick up a default win over Lilwat7uhl.
The league saw rare weekday action this week, with the Straits taking on Khalsa and Galileo meeting Ellis at Quest University Field on Tuesday (March 22). Zephyr also took on Lilwat7uhl at Quest on Wednesday (March 23). Results of those games were not available by press time.
League action will conclude with Wednesdays game and the playoffs will begin at Brennan Park Field on Sunday (March 27). Playoff match-ups are pending Wednesdays results.
For more information on the league, check out the scoreboard section of The Chief.
