PLAYOFF: QUARTERFINAL AGAINST ITALIA SHOOTERS

The Trois-Rivières Attak will play its first ever playoff game against the defending champions, the Italia Shooters, this Saturday at 4pm at the UQTR Stadium.

This will be the last game in Trois-Rivières since the remainder of the playoff will take place in North York, and the Attak players wish to please their fans one last time. "This will be our last home game, we will give it all and defend our colors with pride and honor," said Jean-Louis Bessé.

The Attak met the Shooters three times this season: after two draws in league actions (2-2 on June 10 in Toronto and 0-0 on August 18 in Trois-Rivières), the Mauricie team defeated the Torontians 2-1 in the semifinal of the Open Canada Cup, on September 1st in London.

In the first duel, Marc Dos Santos' men came back from a 2-0 deficit with two late goals from Jean-Louis Bessé (84) and Elkana Mayard (89), which ended a 533-minute unbeaten streak of the Italian goalkeeper Camilo Benzi. Gladstone Richards (25) and Jason De Thomasis (49e) were the Shooters' goalscorers.

Jon Paul Piques, the Impact third goalkeeper, was in net for the other two games, and was beaten once following a penalty shot from Chris Turner (17) in the semifinal of the Open Canada Cup, finally won by the Attak, thanks to Mohammed Nafe (43) and Boubacar Coulibaly (45).

Piques, who shut-out the opponent four times in six games with the Attak, will be the starting keeper, Saturday, to defend the Attak goal against Keidian Lecky (10 goals) and his teammates.

The Attak, second in the national division, and the Shooters, third in the international division, finished the regular season with similar record: 10 wins, 4 losses and 8 draws (38 points) for the Mauricie team; 11 victories, 4 defeats and 7 ties for the Ontarians (40 points). The Attak has the second best offence with 48 goals scored (44 for the Shooters), while the Shooters goalkeepers conceded only 17 goals (29 for the Attak), the second best defence in the league.

"Although we know that the duel on Saturday will be tight and tough, my players and I are confidant to defeat the Shooters," said Marc Dos Santos. "We know this will be another game decided by a small detail, the team that will do less mistakes will be in the semifinals. Concentration is therefore the key word for this game. If you want to be champion, you need to beat the champions and we are all ready and focused to face this great battle."

The other quarterfinal games
The other three duels will take place on Sunday, October 14, as St. Catharines will be host to the Canadian Lions at Club Roma at 4pm, North York will meet Toronto Croatia at the Hershey Centre at 7pm and, finally, Windsor will travel to Toronto to face the Serbian White Eagles at Esther Shiner Stadium at 7pm.

Nicolas Lesage top goalscorer
The Trois-Rivières forward ended the regular season and the Open Canada Cup as top goalscorer, levelled with Serbian White Eagles' Gabriel Pop. The title is awarded to the player with most goals during the regular season, the Open Canada Cup games and the playoff. Lesage beat the opponent's goalkeepers 16 times in 22 league games and two times in four Cup games. With 14 goals thus far, Darko Kolic is actually in fourth position.

Athletes honored
The Attak will be handing out a scholarship to eight UQTR players to support them in their pursuit of excellence in their athletic and academic careers. In addition, Annick Maltais, an athlete from the region who is a member of the Quebec select team, will also be honored.

 
Playoff game #1

Date: October 13, 2007

Time: 4pm

Place: UQTR Stadium, Trois-Rivières

Opponent: Italia Shooters

Teams' record (w-l-d): Attak (10-4-8; 38 points); Italia Shooters (11-4-7; 40 points)

Final standings: Attak - second in the national division; Italia Shooters - third in the international division

Attak games this season:
22- September 30 @ North York Astros, loss 3-2 [Attak goalscorers: Nicolas Lesage (16) and Darko Kolic (13); Attak goalkeeper: Adytia Davalia]
21- September 28 @ Serbian White Eagles, win 4-2 [Attak goalscorers: Alpha Bah (4), Darko Kolic (11,12) and Nicolas Lesage (15); Attak goalkeeper: Jon Paul Piques]
20- September 22 vs London City, win 6-0 [Attak goalscorers: Joe Di Buono (2,3), Darko Kolic (9,10), Nicolas Lesage (14) and Alpha Bah (3); Attak goalkeepers: Vincent Cournoyer (Adytia Davalia, 67)]
19- September 16 @ Canadian Lions, draw 2-2 [Attak goalscorers: Darko Kolic (8) and Nicolas Lesage (13); Attak goalkeeper: Vincent Cournoyer]
18- September 14 @ Portuguese Supra, win 1-0 [Attak goalscorer: Elkana Mayard (3); Attak goalkeeper: Jon Paul Piques]
17- September 8 vs Canadian Lions, win 3-0 [Attak goalscorers: Nicolas Lesage (12), Jean-Louis Bessé (4) and Darko Kolic (7); Attak goalkeeper: Vincent Cournoyer]
16- August 25 vs St. Catharines Wolves, draw 0-0 [Attak goalkeeper: Jon Paul Piques]
15- August 18 vs Italia Shooters, draw 0-0 [Attak goalkeeper: Jon Paul Piques]
14- August 12 vs Windsor Border Stars, win 5-4 [Attak goalscorers: Darko Kolic (5,6), Alpha Bah (2) and Nicolas Lesage (10,11); Attak goalkeeper: Vincent Cournoyer]
13- July 22 @ St. Catharines Wolves, draw 0-0 [Attak goalkeeper: Vincent Cournoyer]
12- July 20 @ Toronto Croatia, draw 1-1 [Attak goalscorer: Ibrahim Baldeh (1); Attak goalkeeper: Vincent Cournoyer]
11- July 14 @ Windsor Border Stars, win 5-1 [Attak goalscorers: Nicolas Lesage (7,8,9), Joe Di Buono (1) and Alex Surprenant (2); Attak goalkeeper: Vincent Cournoyer (Lorenzo Borella, 84)]
10- July 13 @ London City, draw 2-2 [Attak goalscorers: Nicolas Lesage (6) and Alex Surprenant (1); Attak goalkeeper: Vincent Cournoyer]
9- July 7 vs North York Astros, win 2-1 [Attak goalscorers: Nicolas Lesage (5) and Alpha Bah (1); Attak goalkeeper: Vincent Cournoyer]
8- June 24 vs Canadian Lions, win 3-1 [Attak goalscorers: Nicolas Lesage (3,4) and Jean-Louis Bessé (3); Attak goalkeeper: Vincent Cournoyer]
7- June 17 vs Serbian White Eagles, loss 2-1 [Attak goalscorer: Darko Kolic (4); Attak goalkeeper: Gerry Argento]
6- June 10 @ Italia Shooters, draw 2-2 [Attak goalscorers: Jean-Louis Bessé (2) and Elkana Mayard (2); Attak goalkeeper: Gerry Argento]
5- June 3 vs Portuguese Supra, win 4-2 [Attak goalscorers: Darko Kolic (2,3), Guillaume Barrette (1) and Nicolas Lesage (2); Attak goalkeeper: Andrew Weber]
4- May 27 vs Serbian White Eagles, loss 3-2 [Attak goalscorers: Danny Anderson (1) and Darko Kolic (1); Attak goalkeeper: Gerry Argento]
3- May 20 @ Canadian Lions, win 2-1 [Attak goalscorers: Jean-Louis Bessé (1) and Nicolas Lesage (1); Attak goalkeeper: Gerry Argento]
2- May 18 @ Serbian White Eagles, loss 2-1 [Attak goalscorer: Elkana Mayard (1); Attak goalkeeper: Vincent Cournoyer]
1- May 13 vs Toronto Croatia, draw 0-0 [Attak goalkeeper: Andrew Olivieri]

Italia Shooters games this season:
22- October 7 vs North York Astros, draw 0-0
21- September 30 @ Portuguese Supra, win 2-0
20- September 23 vs Canadian Lions, loss 2-1
19- September 16 vs London City, win 8-1
18- September 9 vs Toronto Croatia, draw 0-0
17- September 7 @ Toronto Croatia, loss 4-0
16- August 25 @ Windsor Border Stars, draw 1-1
15- August 18/08 @ Attak de Trois-Rivières, draw 0-0
14- August 15 @ St. Catharines Wolves, loss 1-0
13- August 12 vs St. Catharines Wolves, win 2-0
12- July 15 vs North York Astros, draw 1-1
11- July 7 vs Portuguese Supra, win 4-1
10- June 24 vs Serbian White Eagles, win 2-0
9- June 22 @ Serbian White Eagles, win 1-0
8- June 17 @ North York Astros, loss 3-2
7- June 15 @ London City, win 6-1
6- June 10 vs Attak de Trois-Rivières, draw 2-2
5- June 3 vs Windsor Border Stars, win 4-0
4- May 27 vs Portuguese Supra, win 2-0
3- May 25 @ Portuguese Supra, win 2-0
2- May 20 @ North York Astros, win 4-0
1- May 13 @ Canadian Lions, draw 0-0

Previous games between the two teams:

1- date and time: June 10, 2007 @ The Soccer Center, Toronto

• result: draw 2-2
• goalscorers: Gladstone Richards, Jason De Thomasis (Italia Shooters), Jean-Louis Bessé and Elkana Mayard (Attak)
• goalkeepers: Camilo Benzi (Italia Shooters) and Gerry Argento (Attak)

2- date and time: August 18, 2007 @ UQTR Stadium, Trois-Rivières

• result: draw 0-0
• goalkeepers: Jon Paul Piques (Attak) and Pablo Alvarado (Italia Shooters)

3- date and time: September 1, 2007 @ Cove Road, London [Open Canada Cup, semifinal]

• result: win 2-1
• goalscorers: Mohammed Nafe, Boubacar Coulibaly (Attak) and Chris Turner (Italia Shooters)
• goalkeepers: Jon Paul Piques (Attak) and Camilo Benzi (Italia Shooters)

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