OUA men's soccer Sunday roundup

Photo credit Laurier Athletics

Queen's 2 Ryerson 2 Final

TORONTO - After a thrilling, yet disappointing finish, the Ryerson Rams men's soccer team tied the Queens Gaels 2-2 Sunday afternoon at Allan Lamport Stadium. The Rams [2-0-2] had a 2-1 lead after forward Vince D'Elia scored late in the second half, however a last minute breakdown and corner-kick led to a tying goal in stoppage time by Queen's defender Justin Vermeer.

"That was not one individual's fault that we lost the win," said Ryerson Coach Ivan Joseph. "That was a lack of composure in the final three minutes. A young team has got to learn how to keep a victory."

Alex Braletic, who sat out yesterday's game against RMC, made his presence felt early scoring the opening goal and assisting on D'Elia's tally. Despite his own and the team's play, he isn't ready to settle for the draw.

"We would have been happy with this [tie] last year, but certainly not this year. We let one get away from us, but it's better to let it happen now. We're going to get sharper for next game," said Braletic. "We will win our next game."

David Tom had the other goal for the Gaels, scoring in the 20th minute to make it 1-1 at the break.

The Rams admit that they would like to have played a more disciplined game, especially against a team as tough as Queen's, but despite a yellow card to Kevin Souter, the officiating was not a factor in today's result.

With the tie, the Rams stay undefeated to start the season, and have only allowed two goals against, both coming in today's contest. The goaltending duo of Christian Maraldo and Aaryon Gaeeni are standing tall for Ryerson, both vying for the coveted starting position.

"Right now it's a real struggle between the goalies," said Maraldo. "All the little mistakes count."

If the alternating system stays intact, Gaeeni is due up and will put his clean sheet to the test against the undefeated University of Toronto Varsity Blues. The Rams will look to put today's result behind them when they face the cross-town rival Blues at Varsity Centre, Sunday at 3:15pm.

Laurentian 1 Trent 0 Final

PETERBOROUGH, On. - The Laurentian Voyageurs battled the Trent Excalibur on Sunday, September 12 and will be coming back to Sudbury with a 1-0 win.

The game was a battle from the opening whistle as both teams looked to gain possession. Chances were exchanged for both sides but the first half would end with a 0-0 draw. In the 55th minute, fifth year veteran Adam Bignucolo (North Bay, On.) would put the Voyageurs on the board with his first ever goal for the blue and gold, giving the Voyageurs a 1-0 lead.

The remaining minutes of the half would see Trent pressure Laurentian's back line, which was led by Brian Kavaratzis (Barrie, on.) who played a solid game at the back, winning tackle after tackle for his squad. Goal keeper Dave Szczpaniak (Sault Ste. Marie, On.) would back stop Laurentian to a 1-0 victory as he was forced to make several key saves in the second half to earn his second shutout in as many games.

"Overall we are happy to get the three points today," said head coach Carlo Castrechino. " It was our goal to come on the road and steal three points and we did just that. We now have to prepare and get ready for a tough game against Carleton next weekend."

Next for the Voyageurs are the Carleton Ravens as they will take the Laurentian soccer field on Saturday, September 18. Kick off is set for 2:15 p.m. following the Lady Vees at 12 p.m. Follow your voyageurs online at www.luvoyageurs.com.

UOIT 1 Windsor 1 Final

WINDSOR, Ont. – The UOIT Ridgebacks men's soccer team picked up a point on Sunday as they tied the Windsor Lancers 1-1 at Alumni field.

The Ridgebacks improved to 1-2-1 on the year and are in sixth place in the OUA west region, trailing Windsor (1-1-2) by a single point. UOIT snapped a two game losing streak with the tie, as they fell to the nationally ranked York Lions and McMaster Marauders in their previous two outings.

UOIT trailed early in Sunday's match as Windsor's Mike Watson scored his first goal of the season at the 28 minute mark. The Ridgebacks regrouped at halftime and scored a goal of their own at the 54 minute mark, as freshman midfielder Daniel Henao (Ajax, Ont.) scored his first goal of the year, tying the game at 1-1.

The two goals were all both offences would produce as goaltenders Andrew Thompson (UOIT) and Dan Mendonca (Windsor) stood strong for the remainder of the game. Thompson made eight saves for UOIT leading the Ridgebacks to their fourth point of the year. Final shots in the match were 9-8 in favour of Windsor.

The Ridgebacks will take to the road one more time on Wednesday in Waterloo before their inaugural OUA home game which set to take place on Saturday, September 18 against the Western Mustangs. Kick-off for the historical match is at 3:15 p.m., following a special pregame ceremony.

Western 3 Brock 2  Final

LONDON, Ont. - The Western Mustangs used three unanswered goals to beat the Brock Badgers 3-2 Saturday afternoon at TD Waterhouse Stadium. Niko Mavrikos scored two goals and Vince Caminiti added the third. Andrew Murdoch was strong in goal making a number of saves in the second half to protect the lead.

The Mustangs are now 4-0 on the season. The two goals allowed were the first ones that Western had given up all year.

The Badgers opened up the scoring off a failed clearance by goalkeeper Andrew Murdoch ricocheted off Brock striker Erik Van Wissen and back into the unoccupied net. This made it 1-0 13 minutes into the first half.

Vince Caminiti, of London, Ont., took advantage of the Brock goaltender being out of position as his shot from the corner of the box evened it at 1-1 in the 19th minute.

Western was right back on the offensive and a minute later a beautiful cross from Caminiti found Mavrikos but his strike went just high over the goal. Caminiti continued the offensive pressure and his shot in the 41st minute went off the keeper directly to Mavrikos who hammered it home to make it 2-1 for Western.

The half did not slow down the Mustangs as less than a minute into the second half Mavrikos buried his second goal of the game.

However, Brock continued to fight and a defensive error from Western left Dan Baldasserra wide open behind the defence and he found the net to make it 3-2 in the 55th minute.

The Badgers battled hard, and stepped up the pressure with a number of scoring chances late in the game but Andrew Murdoch kept the score at 3-2 by making a couple of brilliant saves.

Toronto 5 RMC 0 Final

The No. 4 Varsity Blues shut out the RMC Paladins 5-0 in OUA men's soccer action on Sunday, September 12 at Varsity Centre.

The Blues dominated the entire game, outshooting RMC 17-0. With the win, Toronto improves to 3-0-1 and sits atop the OUA East division.

The game got off to a quick start when U of T defender Yannis Gianniotis was awarded a penalty kick in just the third minute of play. RMC goalkeeper Jeremy Whalen (Lawrencetown, N.S.) came up with a big stop; however, fourth-year Blues striker Nordo Gooden finished off his first of a game-high seven shots on the very next play to put the Blues up 1-0.

Alex Raphael would score one of his own in the 13th minute after receiving a pass from second-year midfielder Ryan Sciacchitano and slipping the ball past Whalen.

In the 26th minute, first-year midfielder Ezequiel Lubocki of Winnipeg sent a corner kick into traffic and Blues co-captain Darragh McGee was there to tally his first goal of the season. The Donegal, Ireland native sent a hard shot into the bottom left corner of the net to give Toronto a three-goal lead at the half.

The Blues continued to pressure throughout the second half. Just one minute after a McGee free kick sailed wide of the net, Fanny Bay, B.C. native Dylan Bams came streaking down the middle and headed a perfectly placed cross from Gooden to widen the gap to four.

The ball rarely came out of Paladins territory as Sciacchitano nearly extended the lead further in the 75th minute when he rang one off the cross bar and Bams sent one just over the next three minutes later.

Blues rookies Jean Giroux (Montreal) and Brian Mittag (Courtice, Ont.) came off the bench and quickly created some strong scoring chances. In the 80th minute, some quick passes between the pair led to Giroux's first goal as a Varsity Blue and capped off Toronto's five-goal victory.

The Varsity Blues travel to Kingston, Ont. next weekend where they will again take on the RMC Paladins. Game time is scheduled for 3:15 p.m.

Laurier 1 Guelph 0 Final

No goals were scored in the first half despite several shots on net by the Golden Hawks.

In the second half Laurier created several scoring opportunities from free kicks and finally, after a great cross, Donald Chmura (Waterloo, Ont.) put Laurier on the score board in the 53rd minute. The rest of the game Guelph tried to battle back, but the Laurier defence and goalie Jarrett Humphreys (Waterloo, Ont.) earned their second shutout of the season.

McMaster 2 Waterloo 1 Final