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Mills' Bros Lead The Way For Vaughan In Hard Fought 2-1 Result Over Durham

By League1 Ontario staff, 09/02/16, 3:00PM EDT

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Vaughan Azzurri's triple threat of siblings Jason (29'), Brandon (20') and Jahsua Mills provided a lethal attack in their 2-1 victory over Durham United FA, with two of the brothers scoring and the third creating both goals. 

"I thought we were very good in transition, created some good opportunities in transition," said Vaughan head coach, Carmine Isacco. 

"And they had nothing to lose so we knew we had to defend properly and outnumber them in attack when we won it. I thought we did that well and could have created a few more. They're a good attacking team and we dealt with it."

Durham United FA had their fair share of chances, particularly in the first half with Bruce Cullen free kicks and Kashiff De Jonge opportunities creating a major threat for the Vaughan back-line. 

Durham's Jonathan Parades (31') provided a highlight reel moment when he pulled the home side back to within one goal of equal terms after blasting a left footed drive into the top corner from 35 yards out. 

Vaughan's backline and keeper Andrew D'Souza were up to the challenge though, and squeezed out space for Durham attackers to launch many successful combinations from central areas, restricting the hosts to efforts from distance and crosses. 

"We played a good game," said Durham head coach, Sanford Carabin. "We knew how they play and we told them at the start of the game to watch the counter, and we got burned."

"Second goal especially bothered me, I think everyone knew it was a mistake, but we came out the first part of the second half and our goalie kept us in it, which is nice, but we really should have been two two in the first minute." 

The second half started with fireworks, as De Jonge missed an agonizingly wide open effort from four yards out. 

"You can't let those opportunities that come across the middle go, and I think that would have changed the game if we tied it up two two," said Carabin. 

"Then I think we could have pushed on, but they played well defensively and were tough to break down so I'm not unhappy with the performance but the result didn't go our way."

Incredibly, both sides were handed penalties in the early going of the second half, and both penalties were missed as Durham's Eugene Alves and Vaughan's D'Souza proving to be bedrock on the night.

"I thought our centre backs, Butters, and goalkeeper D'Souza, was fantastic," said Isacco. 

"Gogarty, Ryan Telfer were solid in middle. Andre, Marco and our entire back six were fantastic."

"There were two huge moments with the penalty stop for us and a penalty miss for them. You need your keeper to be good when you need him to be good and he was good when he needed to be today." 

"[Keeper] Alves was looking forward to this game all week," said Carabin. 

"Even in training on Tuesday he put in a little extra work, but yeah I mean goalkeepers are meant to make saves and that's what he did for us," he added. 

"The penalty was a bonus but his job is to lead us. He's a well-organized guy, he knows the game very well, and I didn't expect anything less from our goalkeeper to be honest. We just needed to be sharper in front of net. We didn't take our chances tonight." 

The result puts Vaughan eight points clear at the top of the east division with four matches remaining for the Azzurri. 

On 35 points, Woodbridge Strikers have a game in hand on the Azzurri, while third place Durham United FA also has a game in hand on Vaughan and sits on 32 points. 

The final run-out to the east division conference should prove to be very entertaining indeed with all three teams mathematically still in the running for the east division title and a place in the League1 Ontario Championship final. 

"We're going to keep plugging on and hopefully we get some results go our way over the next four to five weeks," said Carabin. 

"Regardless, we'll try to push off strong to the end of the season."