“It all happened so fast,” says Zachary Ladha. “One second the ball was there, the next it was in the net.”

Ladha’s description of the goal that gave his Oakville team a 1-0 win over Woodbridge is a perfect depiction of 5v5 soccer’s frenetic pace and back-and-forth action. But to hear his coach’s account of the goal that clinched the Gatorade 5v5 championship and earned the team the chance to represent Canada at the Global Finals in Madrid, well, he might be underselling it a little.

Bruno Silva said Ladha hounded the Woodbridge defender, forcing him to pass it back to his keeper. Ladha then pressured the goalie to force a turnover, which he buried in the back of the Woodbridge net for the game’s only goal.

“The last couple of minutes you’re thinking, ‘Can this really happen?’ And then the whistle went and it was, ‘Wow, we really did that,” Ladha said. “It was a tough tournament. It was very exciting. I’m still buzzing from it.”

The team is made up of members of the Oakville Soccer Club's U16 Ontario Player Development League team, including Tyler Curtis, Dylan Lopes, Yves-Michael Tcheuyap, Lucas Russo, Aleks Petrovic and coach Worrell Wright. It went undefeated at the tournament, winning all seven of its games.

While it’s a much different game than 11-aside, the Oakville team adapted quickly.

“I really like the 5-on-5 format. It’s different than what we’re used to,” said Ladha, a Grade 10 student at Abbey Park. “It’s a lot quicker. You’re at one end about to score and all of it sudden it’s back in your end and you’re defending.”

After a perfect run through round-robin, Oakville faced North Toronto, the team that eliminated it from last year’s tournament.

It looked like North Toronto might again as it jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half. Oakville battled back to tie the game 2-2, sending the game to penalty kicks.

Petrovic stopped the first North Toronto shooter and Lopes’ goal gave Oakville the lead. After another save by Petrovic, Russo scored to put the game away.