Serving the Markham Community Since 1971 		  
 
Boys Under 11 Season Summary

I would say we had a great season, 19 players were involved in the program. Almost every 5th house league player had a chance to experience higher level of soccer. On all tournaments we received the highest marks for the behaviour of players, coaching staff and parents - I am extremely proud of that. We managed, again, to organize the Second York Friendship Cup, and did our part in raising our concerns about the field shortage in Markham with the local politician (John Webster).  If someone is measuring the success by number of wins, we did well in that department too. We played in six tournaments, at the first two we lost five games and tied two.  After that we played four more tournaments, and three times we were second, and once missed the final game by one goal...All together we played 26 games, 11 wins, 5 draws and 10 losses.
Have a great winter, best regards
Zoran Radonjic: Coach


Girls Under 10 Season Summary

Going into the All-Star season, the coaching staff really didn’t know what to expect.  Although we had coached some of the girls in the past, it was the first time dealing with other personalities.  We started in June, practicing once a week until mid September.  The players were excited, the parents were eager and the coaching staff tried to stay focused. 
 
During the course of the season we had the opportunity to watch the players improve both in the All-Star program as well as their house league teams.  Our house league teams were very balanced and most of our girls were the top performers on their teams improving every week.
 
We entered three tournaments over the summer and had the following results: 
In our first tournament in Newmarket, we placed second. Because it was our first tournament, it took a lot of organization such as ensuring the parent and players knew what to expect such as being on time, finding the fields and proper nutrition.   In our second tournament in Unionville we placed third.  It was a bigger tournament, more teams and more challenges.  The girls played well, held their own and made us all proud. In our last tournament in Whitby we placed second.  It was by far our best performance.  Most of our players played their best during this tournament.  We saw some nice shots, good tackling, excellent foot work but most importantly our girls demonstrated our motto …”Go in together, play together and leave together”.
 
In closing, we walked away with two out of a possible three trophies.  We feel that some of these girls are ready for the REP program.  Most importantly it was amazing to see the parents support their daughters, win or lose all season. 

The GU10 All-Stars are Alessia Di Matteo, Elyse Douse, Breanna Santolin, Michaela Gruppuso, Laura Davidson, Juliette Schoular, Hailey Azzopardi, Serena Peck, Alanna Rizza, Janine Slaman, Justine O'Donoghue, Laura Da Rosa, Eleni Nearing, and Nadia Boduryan.  The coach is Edwin Ortiz with assistants Mario Di Matteo and John Slaman.  Laura Charlton is the manager.

Thanks to all for a great season,
The Coaching Staff

Congratulations to U12 Boys

Congratulations to the Markham Hornets U12 Boys All-Star team; semi-finalists at the Unionville-Milliken All-Star/Select Tournament on August 25-26. 

Being placed in the stronger division and having to play one additional game made it a hard road to climb.  Our first game against Unionville resulted in a 4-0 victory; a shut-out by Brandon Herdman and a natural hat trick from Corrado Distefano. What a performance!   Our second game was against a new team from St.Catharines, the Concord Rush. They were a powerful, unknown team who moved the ball well, but the Markham team took it up a couple of notches and out-played them and won 1-0.  Our third game was a closer affair against Grimsby; we were up 1-0 until the last minute when they scored to produce a 1-1 draw. Our last game of the day was against East York. In the driving rain, we were able to control most of the play and won 2-1, placing us 1st in our division. 

On Sunday we had to face our arch-rivals Erin Mills, and our team played GREAT!  It was the best performance I have seen all year. We were up 2-0 going into the last minutes, but when it looked like a simple play, the ball took a wild skip across the wet surface and ended up in the back of our net. Even closer to the end, it looked like Erin Mills were about to gain possession, but the final whistle went in time.  That game put us into the final against the winners of the other semi, the Concord Rush again. It was a high quality game; both teams had stellar defence, only allowing 2 or 3 scoring opportunities, so we ended in a 0-0 draw. Straight to penalties kicks, Concord won the coin flip and decided to go first. Brandon Herdman saved it!  What a great start; then Daniel DePola scored! Concord scored, then Sean Ryan scored.  Giancarlo Lupo hit the cross bar and Ryan Phillips scored.  The 6th shooter for Concord scored, and then for Markham Anthony Di Rosa took aim but the ball slipped off his foot - Concord won a high stress game. 

The boys really gelled together and felt much closer as team-mates and friends; it showed as they all linked arms together on each penalty kick.  Congrats go out to Concord for some well fought battles; they were the best team in the tournament. 

Your Markham Hornets are coached by Stephen Busato and Scott Gill; managed by Christine Phillips.  The players are Taniel Ajamian, Brandon Busato, Domenico Caggianiello, Daniel De Paola, Anthony Di Rosa, Corrado Distefano, Harrison Gill, Brandon Herdman, Ruween Jayakody, Giancarlo Lupo, Shawn Mehta, Ryan Phillips, Sean Ryan, Andrew Sivabalan, Nima Tajdolat, Daniel Zaki, and a new addition who really stood his ground and played sweeper for most of the tournament, Sameer Channan.  Congratulations to Daniel De Paola, tournament MVP.

Our next tournaments are in Scarborough on September 15th and Whitby September 22nd.

U17 Boys Win UMSC All Star Tournament

The Markham Hornets under 17 boys captured the under 18 division title at the Unionville Milliken All Star/Select Tournament August 24 and 25 after defeating the Welland Recreational Boys U17 team 3-1 in the final.

Starting off strongly, the Hornets upended the U18 all star team from Unionville Milliken before moving on to play Welland.  The Welland game was a battle to the end with Markham losing 1-0.  Needing a victory in their final round robin game, the Hornets overwhelmed the Oshawa Celtics 5-0.  This victory assured the team of a rematch against undefeated Welland in the final.

Coached by John Slaman, the players included Justin Barreto, Jordan Bedi, Philip Dore-Bari, Tom Filgiano, Joseph Fiorini, Jacob Homuk, Eric Hulst, Adam Murphy, Ben Murphy, Scott Murphy, Ahman Nasser, Jacob Nasser, Kevin Peck, Richard Ruffolo, David Slaman, Aaron Styba, and Kevin Veneziano.

U11 Boys Finalists at Unionville Milliken Tournament

Congratulations to the U11 Boys Markham Hornets (All Star) Team who were finalists at the Unionville Milliken Select Tournament August 25th and 26th, 2007.

The round robin portion saw the Markham Hornets winning the game against Pickering 1-0 and two draws against Unionville Academy and Thornhill Select with the same score, 1-1. That was enough to clinch first place in the group and move to semifinals. 

On Sunday, Markham played semifinal game against the North Mississauga Panthers team.  The Hornets were down 1-0 after the first half, but they showed up strong in the second and they earned the berth to the championship game with the win 2-1.

Stage was set for the championship game between the Hornets and the Thornhill Select. This contest was very exciting and unfortunately for the Hornets they lost this game 2-1.

The Hornets came to the tournament as an outsider and they were team to beat to win the championship.

Members of the team include: Michael Dicarlo, Keaton Cribbey, Sham Gunasekaran, Brandon Popalis, Michael Caggianiello, Aleksandar Radonjic, Luke Fair, Christopher Enright, Edward Essue, Michael Dewar, William Sttodart, Tyler Reilly, Renial Gunasekaran, Adrian Barovier, Cole Kavanagh, Jacob Kulpa, Vejaseen Jeyaratnam, Mario Berardi and Luciano Abbott. The team is coached by Zoran Radonjic, Brett Fair, Aldo Barovier and managed by Karl Abbott.

Second Annual York Friendship Cup Tournament - August 18 & 19

Congratulations to the Markham Hornets BU11 All Star team for finishing 2nd place in the second York Friendship Cup tournament!   The boys played hard and showed nothing but class and solid teamwork throughout the two days of this tournament and we could not be more proud of them.    Day 1 consisted of two games for each team at MDHS fields.  The boys won their  first game by score of 3-0 vs Stouffville and tied their second vs Unionville 0-0.     Day 2 was hosted in Aurora where we won our first game of the day 1-0 vs Aurora, then went on to play Unionville in the final game for the Friendship Cup.   Although we lost the cup game on the penalty kicks after a nail biting finish, we couldn't be more proud of our 2nd place win overall. Needless to say, not one player went home empty handed and they all left smiling.

We were honoured to open the tournament with the Councillor for Ward 5, John Webster and the President of Markham Soccer Club, Chris Shea. We used this opportunity to raise our concern about the field shortage in Markham. The feedback throughout the two days from all teams involved was nothing but positive and we all look forward to the 2008 York Friendship Cup!!

U8 Girls at Unionville Tournament

For the first tournament for the Under 8 Girls Markham Hornets, they represented the Markham Soccer Club well. Strong positional play propelled them to a 1-0 victory over the U-MSC 1999 Academy team. After a long wait period until the second game after lunch, King City outran the Hornets handing them a 3-1 loss. The girls rebounded for the last game of the day against Bolton with a strong 1-0 victory. Sunday's semi-final game against the Pickering 1999 Academy proved too much. Pickering showed Markham what months of practice and many games together can produce. The play was mostly on the Markham side of half yet the score was only 5-0 Pickering. The Hornets were not dejected or upset over their loss as they understood that they tried their best and were beaten by a better team. The girls look forward to their next tournament September 22 in Whitby.

Members of the Under 8 Girls were: Rachel Wilson, Jamie Atherton, Megan Wallenius, Emily Cramarossa, Sarena Henry, Caroline Volpe, Rachel Souza, Paige Kunihiro, Emily Wood, Breanne Douse, Adrianna Cubellis and Francesca Volpe. The girls were coached by Robert Henry with the assistance of John Tepelenas.
 
That's the way it went. The parents were a great support group and were equally proud of the way the girls handled themselves in their first tournament.

Robert Henry, coach

U18 Boys at Alliston All-Star Tournament

Our boys entered the U18 division of the Alliston All Star Tournament August 17 / 18 but due to injuries to some of our older players, all but three were from the U16 age group. There were five teams in the U18 division: Lake Simcoe, Alliston, Guelph, Wasaga, and Markham. Lake Simcoe is currently in 1st place in the YRSA U18 boys inner-loop.  Because there were five teams, Wasaga played two games on Saturday and one on Sunday against the team placing 2nd amongst the other four. 1st place gets to go straight to the championship.

Results were as follows:
Markham 2, Lake Simcoe 2. We felt we were the stronger team, controlling the game. However as luck would have it, we hit a cross-bar and had several near misses.
Markham 2, Alliston 1  We had the advantage of Alliston playing their 3rd game, while it was our 2nd. Guelph 1, Markham 0. We had a goal called back because we were fouled in the box during a break-away. The whistle for the foul blew just as the ball was hitting the back of the net.  We were awarded a penalty kick on the play but unfortunately, we missed it. 

So Lake Simcoe finished the pool in 1st – going straight to the finals. Alliston, Markham and Guelph tied with a 1-1-1 record. Alliston moved forward due to the goal +/- difference - playing Wasaga in the "semi".  Markham placed 3rd and Guelph 4th. [Markham/Guelph eliminated each other in the final game, as Markham needed a tie and Guelph needed to win by 3 goals].
At the end of the day – the boys said 2 things: We should have won the first game, and too bad about the goal being called back.

Overall, the team played very well, the refereeing was great, all teams played clean (good sportsmanship from all); the location/facilities were good, the fields were well watered and lush green. [We played at the Military base in Borden.]

U18 Girls All-Stars Semi-Finalists in Oakville Tournament

The Markham CIBC Hornets U18 Girls all-star team capped a successful season with another semi-final performance in the Oakville Regional 2007 Select/All-Star Tournament on August 18 and 19. The Hornets faced the top two teams in the seven-team tournament in the abbreviated two-game round robin, losing to Valley East (Sudbury) 2-0 and eventual tournament champions Oakville 5-1. The Hornets were hampered in these two games by a controversial red card in the first game to Stephanie Mangos, forcing the team to play 10 on 11 throughout most of the Valley East game and without their sparkplug in the Oakville game. Emily Christen scored Markham’s only goal in the second game and was named Player of the Game for Markham in the first game, while goalkeeper Faheema Velji earned Player of the Game honours in the second game.

This set the stage for a quarter-final match-up with Ancaster, and Markham prevailed with a solid 2-1 win, buoyed by the return of Mangos, who scored the winning goal and was named Player of the Game. Candace Kourounis scored the game’s opening goal on a nice deflection of an Anna-Sophie Bethanis free kick.

A depleted 12-player Markham squad faced Valley East in a rubber match for the semi-finals, but the final result was the same as the first game of the tournament – a 2-0 win for the northerners. Defender Jill Kooymans was named Player of the Game, with honourable mentions going to defender Megan Locker and goalkeeper Emily Christen.

Other players contributing to the team’s success in this tournament were: Alana Gottschalk, Meera Haji, Rebecca Hubert, Michelle Kwok, Kristen Ferkranus, Kaileigh Macrae, and Elena Damtsis.


WAY TO GO ALL-STARS!!!

Markham Hornets entered four teams, BU18, GU18, BU12, and GU10,  in the Newmarket tournament July 7 and 8 and came away with outstanding results: Three teams in the Cup Final and the fourth missing out on the Cup Final by a penalty shoot-out loss in the semi-final.   No matter that we did not win any of the final games, this was the first tournament for most of these boys and girls and the results are tremendous - a testament to their coaching staff.  

Under-18 Girls Do Well At The Newmarket All-Star Tournament

The U18 Girls team got off to a good start with a 1-0 win over Unionville-Milliken on Saturday morning. Emily Christen beat the UMSC goalkeeper with a well-placed low shot to the left corner for the game’s only goal, and Faheema Velji was unbeatable between the goalposts.

A few hours later they faced a powerful North Mississauga team and succumbed 4-1. The bright spot in this game for Markham was a perfectly executed corner kick by Anna-Sophia Bethanis that was headed in by Emily Christen.

Needing a win or tie in the third game of the day to advance to the semi-finals, the girls were not to be denied. Jill Kooymans caught the Scarborough A team flat-footed with a soaring free kick from deep within the Markham defensive zone that sprung Candace Kourounis on a breakaway. Candace carried the ball in and calmly deposited the ball into the back of the net for the only goal that was needed. Faheema Velji recorded her second shut-out of the tournament to secure the 1-0 win, good for second place in the four-team Group A and a spot in the semi-finals.

Markham faced Huntsville, the winners of the four-team Group B, in the semi-finals on Sunday morning. Emily Christen scored her third goal of the tournament on a penalty kick in the first half to give Markham an early lead. Huntsville then tied the game in the second half with a perfectly executed free kick that caught the upper right corner, and the game went to penalty kicks to decide the winner. The Huntsville team had obviously been practising their penalty kick technique, as they scored on four of their five shots (the other attempt hit the cross bar), while their goalkeeper managed to stop two of the four Markham shots. Only Carolyn Kooymans and Anna-Sophia Bethanis could beat her. It was a disappointing way to bow out of the tournament, but the girls exceeded expectations and set the bar high for their future tournaments this summer.

Also contributing to this great team effort were: Alana Gottschalk, Meera Haji, Danielle Skoufranis, Rebecca Hubert, Michelle Kwok, Kristen Ferkranus, Kaileigh Macrae, Elena Damtsis, Katrina Garbin, and Stephanie Mangos. The team is sponsored by CIBC. 

U12 Boys Win Silver at Newmarket Tournament

The U12 Boys Markham All Star Team played their second tournament of the summer on July 7th & 8th, and successfully secured the silver position of their age group. With their best performance to date, the team started their tournament Saturday morning against the Aurora Stingers. With a goal for goal game during the first half the score was tied at 2. Markham stepped up during the second half to score 2 more goals resulting in a 4 to 2 win for the Hornets.

The teams second game of the day was against a rival from previous tournaments, the Erin Mills Eagles. Erin Mills took a 2 nothing lead into the second half of the game, and although the Hornets were able to put one goal into their net, the final results were 2 to 1 for the Eagles.

By the end of the tournament Saturday, the Hornets had secured second place out of 6 teams registered in the age group.

The excitement continued on Sunday with a semi-final game against the Stingers. An early goal by the Hornets gave them the lead which they were able to maintain for the balance of the game. A 1 to 0 win by the Hornets sent the team to the finals against the Eagles.

Going into the finals, the Hornets prepared themselves for a tough game against a challenging team which they had not only won against in previous tournaments, but also had not allowed a goal.

The 2 teams gave it their all during regular game time which resulted in  1-1 tie. With the start of the first of two 10 minute overtime periods, the golden goal rule was in effect, and the first team to score would win. Unfortunately, it was the Eagles who were able to score before the Hornets. An at first disappointment for the Hornets, was replaced with the knowledge the team were going home with silver.

Congratulations to the whole team for a great effort, and to goals scorers; Harrison Gill (2), Giancarlo Lupo (2), Ryan Phillips (1), Brandon Busato (1), Corrado Distefano (1). Plus special note to Taniel Ajamian voted as tournement MVP.

The Markham Hornets All-stars are ; Taniel Ajamian, Brandon Busato, Domenico Caggainiello, Daniel De Paola, Corrado Distefano, Harrison Gill, Brandon Herdman, Ruween Jayakody, Giancarlo Lupo, Shawn Mehta Ryan Phillips, Sean Ryan, Andrew Sivabalan, Nima Tajdolat and Daniel Zaki, Head Coach Stephen Busato, Assistant Scott Gill and Managed by Christine Phillips.


U12 Boys Compete in Erin Mills Tournament

The Markham Hornets U12 Boys All-Star team competed in our first tournament, the Erin Mills All-Star tournament the weekend of June 23rd.  This tournament was open not only to All-Star teams but Select teams.  Our first match was against Leaside, a Select team playing in their 4th tournament of the season.  Our team came out strongly in the first half keeping the score 1-1.  In the second half we hit the goal posts twice and had other various opportunities but were unable to connect; the end result being a 3-1 loss. 
Our second game was against the home team, the Erin Mills All-Stars.  We had the ball in their end for most of the game, our defense held them to maybe two shots on net, resulting in a 1-0 victory. 
Going into our 3rd game we faced the Welland All-Stars; a team who had posted an earlier victory of 8-0 against Unionville.  This game was intense with great efforts by our goalkeeper and power forwards with at least 10 scoring chances in the first half.  Again with three hits on the goal posts, we were unable to mark a score, the end result being a 2-0 loss.

I’m very proud of our result and the boys never gave up and played right to the end of the day with the same level of intensity from the morning.  Congratulations go out to Ryan Phillips for his 2 goals scored and our MVP of the tournament, goalkeeper Mehran Arab, winner of the Manchester United team jersey.  Your Markham All-stars are ; Taniel Ajamian, Mehran Arab, Brandon Busato, Domenico Caggainiello, Daniel De Paola, Corrado Distefano, Harrison Gill, Brandon Herdman, Ruween Jayakody, Giancarlo Lupo, Shawn Mehta Ryan Phillips, Sean Ryan, Andrew Sivabalan, Nima Tajdolat and Daniel Zaki, Head Coach Stephen Busato, Assistant Scott Gill and Managed by Christine Phillips.

See you at our next tournament; it will be in Newmarket on July 7th and 8th
Copyright Markham Soccer Club 2008