On Saturday June 12 the Junior Academy took to the pitch and emerged as 2-0 winners against North York Astros in the CSL Reserve League action. The weather conditions were abysmal but both teams had to deal with the same conditions as the field was water logged quickly with the amount of rainfall.

The young Academy group created several opportunities early on but failed to capitalize on those solid chances.

At the 17th minute Academy player Nathan Kelsey suffered an injury and had to be substituted by Andrew DeMarco. It took a while for the team to settle down and play patches of good football.

“Against a physically stronger team you cannot hold on to the ball that long, you need to have options off the ball very quickly and we struggled with that at the start,” said Stuart Neely. “We adjusted to it late in the half and on another day perhaps we head into the half two goals up."

With some minor adjustments at half the Juniors maintained the same formation but gained more possession and created chances. The final stage of the match saw three substitutions pay off as Prasenna Kirupakaran, Chris Mannella and Praveen Balakumaran all made immediate impacts on the match.

Good work rate and support from Mannella began to hem the Astros in. Balakumaran injected some simple but effective passing in behind the two strikers and Kirupakaran, who had been dropped for performance the previous week, scored off a header and set up the game winner from a set piece.

Parker Seymour and Andrew Curci spun off of each other at the back of the 18 yard box and a well struck ball to the edge of the 6 yard box met a streaking Seymour who buried his chance to make it 2-0.

“We are all in this business to witness how players can respond and how we can develop them on all fronts – Prasenna (Kirupakaran) grasped an opportunity after being left off the roster; but due to numbers was a late addition and he made an immediate impact and scored a great goal from a header. Minutes later he had another chance, but capped off his day with a great ball into the back post for Parker," said Neely. "I am proud of how the substitutions all made an impact today against a tough side.”

The Junior Academy’s next match is Saturday June 19th, 2010 at Joan of Arc Field, Maple. The kick-off is 1:00pm vs. FC Hamilton Croatia.