Shelburne U14 Thunder bring home gold from First to the Turf Tournament

Written By Brian Lockhart

The U14 Shelburne Thunder Soccer team participated in the First to the Turn tournament held in Guelph from Friday, April 24, to Sunday, April 26, and returned home as champions.

Playing with a lot of determination and heart, the Thunder faced teams from larger communities. 

The Thunder placed first in their bracket during the round-robin portion of the tournament with a 7-0 win over Cambridge, a 3-0 win against FETS, and a 1-1 tie with the London Alliance.

The wins secured their spot in the semi-finals.

In that game, they won 2-0 over Kitchener Red Academy, which earned them the right to advance to the finals.

In the final game, they faced a tough opponent – the London Alliance U14 team.

It was a tough battle from the start, and the Shelburne team was trailing 2-0 at halftime.

With six minutes left in the game, the Thunder was awarded a penalty shot and scored.

The goal gave the squad the momentum to get back into the game, and after another minute of play, the Thunder scored again to tie the game 2-2.

When the ref blew the whistle to end regulation time, the teams competed in a shootout to decide the winner.

It was a nail-biter for the fans on the sidelines as the shoot-out got underway.

The first set of shots scored for each team. The second shots were saved by the goalies. The third and fourth shots scored, and the pressure was on the final kickers to put one over the goal line.

The Thunder scored on their fifth shot. Shelburne goalie Aaron Mahesh Raghuram made a huge save to win the game and the tournament.

The Thunder were awarded the Gold Medal at the tournament.

Thunder player Tyler McInroy was named player of the game due to his two goals in the final.