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Match Recap: North Mississauga Panthers 3 - 2 Sanjaxx Lions

By League1 Ontario staff, 06/12/17, 7:00PM EDT

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A classic cameo from second half sub Andi Montina (70', 90') brought the North Mississauga Panthers the spark they were looking for as they broke the deadlock and won 3-1 over a difficult to break down Sanjaxx Lions' side. 

"It was definitely a timely substitution, bringing on our striker Andy Motina who does things like that for us," said North Miss team official, Patrick Guirguis. "He pulled off two good goals as a sub, his first coming on his first touch to give us the lead, and a cracker of a winner there to take the match." 


Lee-Victor Massunda (Photo: Martin Bazyl)

2016 League1 All-Star Lee Victor Massunda (57') got the home side off to the right start in North Mississauga's home opener at Hershey Centre, before Sanjaxx's Antonio Downey (61') levelled the scoreline and set the stage for an intense final half hour. 

"We came here to fight and we put up a good fight but at the end of it we played a very good game," said Sanjaxx assistant coach, Devon Porter. 

"We didn't just come here to lay down. The match got heated because of guys shoving each other and I think that needed to get nipped in the bud before it got first." 

"We just asked our team to push harder in the second half," he explained further. 

"We felt this was a game we could win, and we just wanted them to stay disciplined and organized, and go for it. We can fight with any team, and at the end of the day you could say this was just unlucky today."


(Photo: Martin Bazyl)

The win was North Mississauga's second of the season, and will put the team on a high going into their upcoming L1 Cup fixture midweek.

"It was definitely an entertaining match today," said North Miss' Guirguis.

"Both teams had their gameplans, we definitely had ours. We wanted to basically hold back a little bit and have them come to us while we defended in the middle third of the field and looked to counter. That team, Sanjaxx, are very disciplined defensively and we just had to look for those gaps to take advantage."

"And it was definitely a positive outcome for the team," he added. "It was something we haven't had a lot of throughout the year and we are definitely going to take this win and celebrate as we prepare for our Wednesday L1 Cup game against TFC."

Sanjaxx Lions will next play Toronto Skillz on June 18 at Monarch Park, Toronto.

North Mississauga Panthers will next play Durham United FA on June 16 at Hershey Centre, Mississauga.