St
Catherines Standard: Olympians Send Wolves to Sidelines
September 19, 2002
Olympians send Wolves to sidelines
Mississauga victory keeps
St. Catharines out of playoffs
Alison Rogers, The
Standard
stcatharines
The St. Catharines Roma Wolves may have had
an outside shot at a playoff berth with a win over Mississauga Olympians
Wednesday night.
The Olympians had their own designs on the post-season,
however, and blasted the host Wolves 4-0 before the biggest crowd of the year in
the Canadian Professional Soccer League matchup at Club Roma Park.
With
the victory, the Olympians vaulted from fourth place, past the third-place
Wolves (24 points) and second-place Hamilton Thunder (25 points) to sit just two
points behind first-place Toronto Croatia in the Western Conference.
The
Wolves, the defending CPSL champs, ended the season with six wins, seven losses
and six draws, missing the playoffs for the first time since
1997.
Player-coach Lucio Ianiero said the St. Catharines squad never got
any momentum going against Mississauga.
The Olympians, with five members
of the Toronto Lynx of the North American A League in their lineup, got a hat
trick by Hayden Fitzwilliams and a late goal by Damien
Basak.
Fitzwilliams netted his first goal of the night just four minutes
into the game when he beat Wolves' goalkeeper Andy Luchetta to the ball and
drilled it into the mesh. Fitzwilliams also scored at the 23-minute mark and
added a third goal at the start of the second half to snuff out any chance of a
Roma comeback.
Carlo Arghittu, St. Catharines' 28-year-old striker, said
despite the high turnover in players -- including five players who joined the
Hamilton Thunder -- the Wolves should have made the playoffs.
"Every
Wednesday night here, we prove we're a team to be reckoned with," said Arghittu.
"The difference tonight was that they had five or six players from the
Toronto Lynx."
Ianiero said he thought the CPSL had tightened the rules
about players from the A-League joining CPSL teams for late-season
runs.
"I thought we put a stop to this," said Ianiero. "I feel bad for a
lot of our veterans who got burned by this three years ago."
Still,
Arghittu said the Wolves shouldn't have been in the position to be fighting for
the final playoff berth in their season finale.
"Two games stand out in
my mind," he said. "One was in Montreal where we allowed them to score in the
93rd minute -- in injury time -- to tie us.
"The other was here when we
had a 4-1 lead against North York and ended up tying 4-4."
With each win
counting for three points and ties counting for one, those games cost the Wolves
four points. With four more points, St. Catharines would have been tied for the
division lead despite Wednesday's loss.
Arghittu, who was tied for second
in league scoring with 12 goals as of Wednesday, said he plans to work harder in
the off-season to improve his scoring touch.
Ianiero, 35, battled
injuries during the season, but said he'd like to return as coach next season.
The former national team member plans to play for the Wolves
again.
"I didn't feel like I had a very good season," said the St.
Catharines Collegiate teacher. "I don't think any of us had a great
year.
"I don't want to go out on a note like that."
The Wolves
were without goalkeeper Claudio Perri and Joe Carbonara for the game against
Mississauga after both were ejected from Sunday's victory in Brampton.
Frank Zumpano also served a suspension after picking up a third yellow
card.
"It's nothing new," shrugged Ianiero. "All season long we've had
guys out with injuries or suspensions."
Luchetta, who plays for Welland
in the Niagara District premier league, made his first start in goal for St.
Catharines Wednesday.
© Copyright 2002 St
Catharines Standard
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