CNSL Cup game Sunday June 2nd, 1996

Here are the details of the CNSL game played Sunday June 2nd, 1996 between Toronto Italia and St Catharines Wolves at Rainbow Creek Park in Woodbridge at 6pm. This was considered a Cup game.

Toronto Italia (blue socks and shorts, white shorts and numbers) ..................................................1 Joe Ciaravino
4 Richard Alexander 3 Franco Spadafina 6 Jack Zomporelli 5 Tom Perks
10 Ruben Gonzalez 23 Phil Caporrella 7 Miguel Ferreira 11 Marco Antonucci
.......................................20 Nick Maxwell 9 Ryan Gamble

subs 2 John Annisi 12 Anthony Zanini 15 Steve Spizzirri

St Catharines Wolves (red socks and shorts, white shirts, black numbers)

....................................................23 Dino Perri
3 John McNeil 22 Peter Sarantopoulis 8 Peyvand Mossavait 12 ??????????
13 Lucio Ianiero 2 John Williams 7 Gary McGuchan 20 Tom Bernardi
......................................9 Paul Moore 11 Carlo Arghittu

subs 16 Gus Marchio 35 Andrew Loague 15 Tony Carbonara 26 Jerry Cipriani 1 Lee Burrows

Officials: unknown (ref: Mr Bridgeman?)

There are no scoreboards at this park so my times may be a bit off. The park has stands along one side and has wire fences along the rest of the field but otherwise is 'open' so tickets had to be bought right in your car as you turned off Highway 7. There was no pressbox and the PA sound system was set up inside the back of a truck. Attendance was about 400 people. In the rain they brought their umbrellas which to some of them meant bringing patio umbrellas which could protect three people but left people behind them not able to see. As I was asked to compile stats by the league I spent the first fifteen minutes of the game getting hold of the lineups.

Ceremonies to start involved a welcome from the Mayor of Vaughan, national anthems of Italy and Canada, the release of a few dozen balloons and the Italia players giving roses to the crowd.
Game started in the rain which would continue of and on through entire game.

15 sec Tor Ferreira is injured.
the big gap in time
15 min StC goalie throws ball that Maxwell almost blocks but goalie gets it back but he's outside of box resulting in freekick.
Tor Antonucci blasts freekick into wall.
17 min Tor Ferreira called for illegal throw-in.
18 min Tor Ferreira earns another freekick because of being pushed.
19 min StC win freekick because Tor goalie slides out of box.
20 min StC GOAL McGuchan receives cross across box, boots bouncer into top left corner.
27 min Tor Caporrella point blank shot low blocked by goalie (set up by Ferreira crossing from right side near line while surrounded by three defenders.
30 min StC sub Cipriani for the Number 12 guy. (poor performance?)
35 min StC Mossavait in alone boots low and wide left.
37 min StC freekick two fakes and third guy blasts into four man wall.
38 min StC Moore blasts ball over net from 20 yards.
40 min StC Cipriani comes back and steals breakaway ball from Caporrella.
41 min Tor yellow card to captain Antonucci for disputing freekick call. Bridgeman(?) ref is argueing with another Italia player when he took over. Ref says "Don't you see which way my arm is pointed?". Antonucci walks away but must have made some comment.
44 min StC McGuchan gets centering pass and blasts wide.
Halftime score: Toronto Italia 0 St Catharines Wolves 1

Halftime subs Tor Annisi replaces Gonzalez; Annisi comes in as defender, Zomporelli pushes up to midfielder
......................Tor Spizzirri replaces Gamble
......................StC Loague replaces ??????
52 min StC Arghittu races down line and crosses resulting in a corner.
70 min Tor Ferreira blasts free kick twice as high as net from 20 yards out.
77 min Tor GOAL StC goalie along way out of net misses ball then hipchecks Caporella off ball but Caporella retains balance and tucks ball in from sharp angle.
78 min Tor goalie injured on sliding save off cross field pass.
..after a few corners for both teams last scoring opportunity is:
90 min StC freekick two yards outside box, blasted into wall but on scramble both StC Ianiero and Tor Antonucci are injured.

Final score: Toronto Italia 1 St Catharines Wolves 1

I thought this was good attendance compared to last year for such a rainy evening. If Italia can build on this they may regret the dinky stadium they've moved into. The stadium could hold 10 times that if the fans lined all sides but the parking lot was almost filled with what they had at the stadium and other park activities.

The result didn't stand very long. Toronto Italia ended up being awarded the win as the Wolves used an illegal player. Apparently Peyvant Mossavait was still on the protected list of Italia as he played last year for them. Now I'd think this could have been pointed out before the game started but not saying anything meant Italia couldn't lose. The people were entertained but since all records are expunged so I hope it wasn't a 'career' goal for McGuchan nor Caporrella.

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