Written by Rob Paul, Bradford Today:
In March, Holy Trinity Catholic High School in Bradford was named the host of the 2022 Girls OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) AA Soccer Championship.
Now, the team is making their hometown proud as they advance to the OFSAA semi-finals Saturday.
What began as 20 teams battling it out on the pitches of Bradford, has now been narrowed down to four schools competing for the prestigious OFSAA gold medal.
Pool play began Thursday with Holy Trinity defeating Lorne Park Secondary School 5-1 and Crestwood Preparatory College 4-0. On Friday, Holy Trinity secured their spot in the quarter-finals with a 7-1 victory over Our Lady Queen of the World Catholic Academy before finishing off their sweep in pool play with a 2-1 win against Korah Collegiate & Vocational School.
In the quarter-finals, Holy Trinity took on Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School from Courtice and won 6-3 to advance to the semi-finals on Saturday.
Holy Trinity head coach Denny De Oliveira was pleased to see the strong support from the community in Bradford through the first two days of OFSAA.
“It’s awesome, it’s all about Bradford with the hometown crowd and lots of alumni out,” he said. “There’s been so much good cooperation from the town, parks and rec, and the schools. This is what you build towards. Having our alumni and parents out, after two years of COVID it’s just awesome to see.”
One supporter in attendance was Bradford native Stephanie Sinclair who purchased the girls food, drinks and snacks to fuel up on, and handed them out with assistant Taylor Button on Friday.
“It’s women supporting women,” she said. “Go Trinity Tigers!”
Despite the team’s strong success thus far, De Oliveira didn’t want to get too far ahead of himself when looking at how well the girls have played so far because he knows the team has higher aspirations than qualifying for the semi-finals.
“We’ll talk about that after tomorrow,” he grinned.
Holy Trinity will play in the semi-finals at 9 a.m. Saturday morning against Γcole Secondaire Catholique L’Essor from Tecumseh. Thomas A. Blakelock High School from Oakville will play Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School from London in the other semi-final matchup.
Follow up info:
Holy Trinity defeated ESC L’Essor in the Semi Final 2-1 in penalty kicks and then advanced to the Gold medal game. They faced a strong Thomas A. Blakelock but defeated them with a score of 2-1 to be crowned OFSAA Girls AA Soccer Champions! An enormous thank you goes out to all of the staff and student volunteers, referees, medical staff, spectators, and sponsors for their contributions to an immensely successful championship!