The clock is ticking for the Gaels if they want to make the playoffs.
The Queen’s Men’s Soccer team played two road games this past weekend, ultimately losing both of them. They lost to the Nipissing Lakers on Oct. 3 by a score of 2-1 before being defeated by the Laurentian Voyageurs the next day on Oct. 4, also by a score of 2-1.
The team’s first game on the doubleheader slate was against Nipissing in North Bay.
The first 20 minutes of the match were evenly played, with each team playing at a fast pace but neither side able to create any true dangerous opportunity.
The next ten minutes were all Gaels, as they spent majority of the time in the Lakers’ end and created scoring chances. Eventually, they would get on the board at the 31st minute when Franco di Giovanni, ArtSci ’27, tapped in a rebound off of a free kick from just outside the six-yard box to give Queen’s a 1-0 lead. It was Giovanni’s third goal of the campaign.
The Gaels were able to close out the first half and take a lead into halftime.
The second half was not as kind. Despite solid pressure for the first fifteen minutes from the Gaels, the Lakers capitalized on their first scoring chance of the half to tie the game 1-1 at the 63rd minute. Nipissing would also draw a penalty shot at the 71st minute and score on the ensuing penalty kick to give the Lakers a 2-1 lead.
Queen’s was unable to generate much for the rest of the game and ended up dropping the match by a final score of 2-1.
The team looked to rebound against the Laurentian Voyageurs the next day in Sudbury. The two teams faced off against each other last weekend at Richardson Stadium on Sept. 27, with the match ending in a scoreless draw.
READ MORE: Queen’s Soccer goes unbeaten against Laurentian
After an uneventful start to the game, disaster would strike for the Gaels at the 30th minute. After a clearance from the Voyageurs’ goaltender, miscommunication in Queen’s backend led to a goal to put Laurentian up 1-0.
No more goals were scored in the first half, as the Gaels trailed 1-0 into halftime.
Like the first half, the second half was evenly played, but the Voyageurs were able to capitalize on costly mistakes by the Gaels. A turnover in Queen’s end led directly to a Laurentian goal at 66th minute to double their lead.
To the Gaels’ credit, they didn’t go down easily as they pushed in an attempt for a comeback. They managed to cut the deficit to one as Sebastian Aguade, ArtSci ’29, deposited a beautiful shot into the top-left corner off a feed from Damola Akanni, ArtSci ’29, in injury time.
However, there wasn’t enough time left for a Gaels comeback, and the team ended up losing 2-1 to the Voyageurs.
The lackluster offensive showing over the weekend continues a season-long struggle for the Gaels’ offense. The team has not scored more than one goal in five consecutive games and have only done so once this season during a 3-0 win over the Carleton Ravens on Sept. 11.
The two losses also give the team a 2-5-2 record and just eight points, which has them sitting in eighth place in the Eastern Conference in the Ontario University Athletics standings, ahead of the winless Royal Military College (RMC) Paladins. The top six teams in each conference make the OUA playoffs, with the Ravens holding the last spot in the East with eleven points.
The team will look to correct things next weekend when they take on the Trent Excalibur in Peterborough on Oct. 9. Their final two games of the regular season will occur on Homecoming weekend at Richardson Stadium, when they face the Toronto Varsity Blues on Oct. 16 and the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks on Oct. 18.
Tags
OUA, Queen's men's soccer, soccer
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