AROUND OUA: Western, Queen's, Carleton and McMaster advance to quarter-finals

SCOREBOARD

Western 2 @ Laurier 0

Laurentian 0 @ Queen's 1

Trent 1 @ Carleton 4

Windsor 0 @ McMaster 4

Mustangs head to OUA Quarterfinals with 2-0 win over Laurier

WATERLOO, Ont. – A pair of second half goals from Braeden Gee and James O'Callaghan led the Western Mustangs to a 2-0 win over the Laurier Golden Hawks on Wednesday night in a first round playoff matchup at University Stadium.

The win sends the Mustangs off to the OUA Quarterfinals, where they'll take on the York Lions on Sunday.

Gee and O'Callaghan's goals came late in the contest, with Gee opening the scoring in the 74th minute, while O'Callaghan added his marker 12 minutes later to finish out the game's scoring.

Kody Thomson earned the shutout in the Mustangs net, making two saves in the win, while Rocco Strazzela made four saves for the Golden Hawks.

Neither team was able to solve the other in the opening 45 minutes, with the Mustangs holding a 3-2 edge in shots in the first half.

The Mustangs broke the deadline just under 30 minutes into the second half, with Gee scoring in the 74th minute to give Western a 1-0 lead. O'Callaghan added another goal a little over 10 minutes later to secure the 2-0 win.

The OUA playoffs will continue this weekend, with the Mustangs heading on the road to take on York. Game time is set for 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Source: Western Mustangs

Marauders punish undisciplined Lancers to advance to OUA quarter-final

Penalties pushed McMaster ahead, and fouls kept them there Wednesday. Yunus Mollayev scored twice from the spot, before Windsor was eventually reduced to nine men and dumped out of the OUA playoffs 4-0 by the Marauders at Ron Joyce Stadium.
 
Dusan Kovacevic and Chris Luxton added goals for McMaster, who advanced to the OUA quarter-final stage with the victory.
 
Heading out on the road for whatever remains of their playoff journey, the Marauders will battle the Gryphons in Guelph Sunday for a place in the OUA Final Four, to be played at the home of the highest remaining seed in the OUA East division.
 
The Marauders and Gryphons drew both matches they played in the regular season, going goalless in their first meeting in Guelph on September 2, before playing to a 2-2 stalemate at Ron Joyce Stadium on September 14.
 
McMaster broke the deadlock early Wednesday, as referees adjudged a Lancer defender to have pushed Mollayev in the box, and the Marauders captain stepped up to the spot and calmly slotted home the penalty in the 15th minute.
 
Late pressure from the Windsor Lancers threatened to level the match before the halftime break, and Mac keeper Kieran Doyle-Davis was called upon to make an acrobatic save, palming a rising shot past the post, before the half was done.
 
But, having soaked up the worst of Windsor's onslaught, McMaster doubled their lead in the 63^rd, when Marco Gennaccaro was sent in alone on the Windsor goal and was brought down from behind by Marco Bernabo, who was issued a straight red card and ejected, reducing the Lancers to 10 men.
 
Mollayev once again took to the penalty spot, and despite a touch from goalkeeper Greg Chac, his effort rolled through for his second goal of the night.
 
14 minutes later, the situation worsened for the visiting Lancers, as Kovacevic added his name to the score sheet by taking down the bouncing ball on his chest and clipping a delicate shot past Chac.
 
Compounding matters, Windsor's lineup shrunk to nine men when Anthony Pollock was issued his second yellow card of the match in the aftermath of the goal and joined Bernabo in the dressing room.
 
From there, it was smooth sailing for the Marauders, and Luxton put the icing on the cake in injury time, wriggling free in acres of space behind the Windsor back line and eventually muscling the ball past Chac for his team's fourth goal.
 
McMaster's four-goal performance was its highest scoring effort at home in 2016.
 
UP NEXT: The Marauders travel to Guelph for an OUA quarter-final against the Gryphons on Sunday, October 30. That match gets underway at 3:00 p.m.

Source: McMaster Marauders

Martin goal sends Gaels to OUA quarter-final with 1-0 win over Laurentian

KINGSTON, Ont. (October 26, 2016) - A second-half strike from veteran  midfielder  Andrew Martin (Kingston, Ont.) was enough for a 1-0 victory in the OUA opening round playoff over the Laurentian Voyageurs at Miklas-McCarney field on Wednesday night.

GAME FLOW
The two teams started off slowly, neither side wanting to take any big risks early on just looking to keep a steady tempo. The Gaels however, controlled the majority of chances offensively in the opening half.

At the 20th minute marks the Gaels Martin looked to have had an easy tap in goal, but the play was called back for an offside.

The Gaels best chances of the opening half came  on  a flurry of opportunities in close. Chris Wellsman (Victoria, B.C.) fired a shot from just a few yards away from Laurentian keeper Connor Vande Weghe who stopped the shot, but  Wellsman  got in on the rebound that Vande Weghe again steered away. The ball soon after came out  wide  to the opposite side and Patrick Van Belleghem (Kenora, Ont.) fired another shot that just went over the bar to keep the game at 0-0.

As the half closed out Queen's had fired 13 shots with six on target compared to four shots and one on target for Laurentian.

In the second half, Queen's continued to get the ball towards the Laurentian goal. Martin got another shot at redemption in the 2nd half after his 1st half goal was called back  on  an offside. The Gaels got the ball to Martin in the middle who made a nice move to beat a defender and open up just enough space for him to fire a shot low and to the right of the diving Voyageur keeper Vande Weghe. The unassisted goal put the Gaels in front 1-0.

Laurentian,  in desperate need of a goal to tie the game , were able to get four shots in on Gaels keeper Alex Jones (Comox, B.C.) but he held  strong  making saves on each attempt. 

The Gaels staved off the Laurentian attack and held on for the 1-0 victory. Jones picked up a clean sheet with his four-save performance.

FINAL SAY
"The spirit was good, and we just had the full belief from the get-go. I give full credit to our players this was a team battle today, it felt like a brotherhood and a family I'm proud of the guys. As good as this  feels  though we still have a lot of work to do, our goal is to get to the Final Four and be successful there." - Head coach Christian Hoefler.

BY THE NUMBERS
25 - Shots fired towards the Laurentian net
10 - Shots off the foot of Chris  Wellsman  for the Gaels
2 - Straight wins over Laurentian, Queen's won the final game of the regular season as well in Sudbury
0-2-0 - The Gaels record against Ryerson this season

UP NEXT
The Gaels advance to the OUA East quarter-finals where they will visit the Eastern 1st place Ryerson Rams this Sunday at  6pm.

Source: Queen's Gaels

Carleton avoids playoff upset with extra-time victory over Trent

OTTAWA, ON — It took 120 minutes of intense playoff soccer to eventually decide a winner, but the third-ranked Carleton Ravens men's soccer team is moving on to the OUA East semifinals following a 4-1 extra-time victory over the Trent Excalibur in the preliminary round of the 2016 conference playoffs.

BOX SCORE

"This is playoffs, we play for keeps – this isn't for points anymore, we were playing for survival tonight," said men's soccer head coach Kwesi Loney after his team's narrow escape over Trent. "Once we got to overtime, the guys played the full thirty minutes, and did what they should have done in the first forty-five minutes."

Carleton, who had disposed of Trent in their two previous encounters during the regular season, needed an additional half hour to get past a stingy Excalibur side that held Carleton to one goal through regulation time, despite the home team's copious number of opportunities to put the game away in the first half.

Following a terrific 90-minute performance from Excalibur goaltender Dave Ellis, Carleton finally burst Trent's bubble in the overtime session, scoring three goals in a 21-minute span to avoid a major first-round upset.

The Ravens looked dangerous right from the get-go, as forward Andrew Bryan (Montreal, QC) appeared to be the best candidate to give Carleton the lead in the first half, but Trent keeper Ellis was there to repeatedly deny the Ravens talisman.

After a lengthy period of sustained Carleton pressure, it was the visitors who crashed the party by going up 1-0 in the 30th minute. Some nice Trent build-up play afforded midfielder Jaycob Bond a clear path to goal, and he made no mistake by putting the ball past Ravens keeper David Monk (Oakville, ON), who had faced very little action to that point in the game.

Stirred but not shaken, Carleton maintained its focus as the team went hunting for a tying goal. In the 41st minute, fifth-year Raven Daud Dahir (Ottawa, ON) answered the call when he finished off a back-post cross from winger Alex De Couvreur (Ottawa, ON) to level the game at 1-1 before the break.

In the second half, the Ravens looked equally as dangerous as they had in the opening 45 minutes, but the Trent defenders continued to do well in front of their own net.

Carleton had plenty of chances to go up in the late stages, but they lacked quality finishing in the attacking zone, leaving the team frustrated and the Ravens fans in a state of disbelief as the game entered extra time.

Although the Ravens struggled to find the back of the net in regulation time, the team made a breakthrough early in the first OT session thanks to first-year defender Weber Bourjolly (Ottawa, ON), who smashed home a rebound given up by Trent off of a rocket shot from Carleton midfielder Walker Smith (Ottawa, ON).

With momentum in their favour, Carleton stormed ahead in the second overtime period, as Andrew Bryan (Montreal, QC) finally converted in close to the goal thanks to a great setup from Daud Dahir to make it 3-1.

Finally, Walker Smith was in on the action once more, breaking free past a tackle and a defender before sending the ball across the six-yard box to Abdul Akinwande (Ottawa, ON), who made the easy tap-in for the team's fourth and final goal of the night.

Carleton advances to the next round of the OUA playoffs, where they will take on a familiar foe in the Toronto Varsity Blues on Sunday. The two teams met just four days ago, with the game finishing in a 1-0 loss for the Ravens after they played a man down for nearly the entire fixture.

"This is the game you want to play," said coach Loney, when asked for his early thoughts on meeting up with the Toronto Varsity Blues on the weekend. "U of T is one of the best teams in the country, so we are looking forward to getting a shot at them again."

Source: Carleton Ravens