On Sunday, Men’s Soccer played Laurentian at home and earned a 6-0 victory. It marked the end of an exciting season end for both the team and their fans.
The team celebrated its graduating seniors prior to the game. They were each introduced to the audience and given a photo op.
Many of the player’s family members were in attendance, and some came from truly far distances, including team captain Nick Allie Day’s family who traveled all the way from Vancouver for the game. It was their first time watching him play at home.
The Gaels started the game off strong with some truly incredible passing that gave them a strong hold of the ball. Their communication during the game was very impressive. Goalie Manuel Dirube demonstrated excellent leadership as he encouraged his teammates from in net.
Around the 15-minute mark, Allie Day scored the first goal for Queens.
A little while later—at the 26-minute mark—Andrea Gortana got fouled inside the 18-yard box. Noah Campagna took the penalty kick, and easily scored another point for Queen’s. Then less than a minute later, Gortana executed a beautiful play with Pablo Hempelmann-Perez and Alie Dayto to bring in another Queen’s goal.
Queen’s dominated the first half 3-0 by playing on the shoulder to generate chances. However, the second half did not start in Queen’s favour.
Daniel Lee went in for a touch near the Laurentian goal, but got tackled and sent to the ground. The referees didn’t call it and play continued for a few more moments while he stayed down. Eventually, a medic came out to help him off the field.
Lee tried to play through it for a few minutes before being replaced by Christopher Yoo. Playing at a disadvantage didn’t slow Queen’s down as Gortana scored his second goal of the game to make the score 4-0.
The Gael’s fifth goal was also a masterpiece. Ethan Westbury started on a breakaway towards the net but got stopped. Instead of giving up, he sent a clean pass to Nicholas Rallis that resuled in another beautiful goal.
Laurentian lost what little steam they had. Nathan Fong took advantage of their exhaustion for Queen’s by intercepting a pass and scoring the final goal of the game.
The win was a perfect way to launch the Gaels into their playoff run.
“It was a very special game. I’m really thankful for all of my teammates for giving us an amazing performance and win going into our playoff game Wednesday,” Allie Day said in an interview with The Journal.
Noah Campagna, another senior player, echoed the sentiment.
“Everything we did today was as a team. We lifted each other when we were down, we made mistakes, but the guys truly helped each other out and supported each other in every moment of the game,” Campagna said in an interview with The Journal.
Head Coach Christian Hoefler is ecstatic heading into playoffs.
“[I’m] honestly just so proud of the guys,” Hoefler sadi in an interview with The Journal.
“I’m really excited to show what this team has to offer. At the end of the day, it’s just one game at a time, and the guys have really good heads on their shoulders going at this with full intention to get a result.”
Tags
home game, Nick Allie Day, Senior's Day, soccer, win
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