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Oakville's Fighting Spirit Prevails With Jones Late Winner Over TFCA

By League1 Ontario staff, 08/26/16, 4:15PM EDT

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Oakville Blue Devils and Toronto FC Academy battled to an exciting 3-2 result midweek with the Devils taking all three points after goals from Judah Hernandez (7'), Tarik Roberts (36') and Blake Jones (86').  

"The winning goal just came out of the fighting spirit that we have had over the last few games," said Oakville head coach, Duncan Wilde. 

"We knew it would be a tough game because TFCA has such a quality group of young players, and Stuart has them moving the ball really quickly," he added. 

"We were worried about their pace so we tried to play defensively very narrow, and if we sacrificed space, we were going to sacrifice it out wide." 

TFCA's Richie Ennin (70', 83') provided the second half strikes for the Junior Reds, equalizing the match and forcing an intense final seven minutes of action.

"The game was never out of our reach, and we really felt at half-time that we were getting back into this game," confirmed Toronto head coach, Stuart Neely. 

"The boys were energized and they came at it. I think there was a little youthful excitement when they tied it up and went for a third, and I thought "ok, you've got to let them learn from that," he added. 

"It was a good goal to get the winner for Oakville, but at the end of the day I thought we gave a good account for ourselves, and a good account of how these young men have started to develop." 

Toronto FC Academy's play had made an impression on Oakville as well, and the defending League1 Ontario champions came to the match at the Ontario Soccer Centre with a clear gameplan. 

"We worked really hard first half and we played more counter-attack, which is not normally like us," said Wilde. "We got two goals from it, which we're very pleased with, but it was a lot of hard work." 

"In the second half basically they just did their job very well," he added. "They had some individual moments that we couldn't live with and fully deserved to get back into the game. In the last few minutes, the game was open and we just decided to take a chance and go 4-3-3." 

"One of the things we've really tried to do better is have a strong second half performance and it paid off for us."

Neely indicated that his team had a plan for dealing with Oakville too, after the two sides have had some epic battles over their last four meetings in League1.

"When you play against Oakville, they can be direct at times and they have a good defensive block and know how to move their defensive system around and shut things down for you," he said. "We have to keep the ball moving, and we have to keep the tempo high, and I think we did that well tonight from the start of the game to the end of the game." 

"We were unfortunate that we made two rash decisions in the first half and it cost us a free kick and a penalty, but I still wasn't worried about the result overall," he added. 

"We accomplished a lot of goals tonight and were able to get some players back in from injury. We've called up some young players and I think we got some good quality football in. I think our mistakes are becoming less and less as a young team."