The Ravens men’s water polo team ended the season almost exactly the same way they did in 2013 with a gold medal game against the University of Toronto (U of T) Varsity Blues, only this time the Ravens were unable to claim the championship.
In the final game of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championship tournament, the Ravens lost a 7-6 nailbiter to the Varsity Blues, the same score they’d beat them by in last year’s gold medal game.
Ravens assistant coach Louis-Philippe Brosseau said the entire game was well-played by both teams, and the loss couldn’t be pinpointed to anything specific.
“We took a couple more bad shots than the other team,” he said.
The Ravens got the first goal of the game early in the first quarter, setting the team up for a lively first half with the lead flipping back and forth between the two finalists.
Going into the second quarter, the game was tied at 2-2 until U of T scored another goal after a series of cleanly executed assists.
U of T went up 5-2 in the second quarter, but Bill Meyer had the next goal early into the third quarter for the Ravens, thrown effortlessly into the net and bringing the score up to 5-3.
A Toronto goal was followed by another goal from the Ravens on a penalty shot executed by Ogi Gutovic. The game had quickly become a round of catch-up for the home team.
With the score at 6-4 going into the last quarter, both teams had several failed attempts at the net until U of T scored again, depleting hopes that the Ravens would recover before the game’s end.
Raven Andrew DiPerna said even at this point, the team never gave up.
“We fought for it,” he said. “Honestly, it just came down to everyone always pulling together.”
A late push in the final quarter may have won the Ravens the championship if another shot hadn’t bounced off the net with under a minute to go, amidst moans from Ravens supporters in the crowd, or if the Varsity Blues hadn’t scored again in the last quarter.
Both DiPerna and teammate Dusan Boskovic said they expected a tough game against Toronto in the final, which was what they got.
Boskovic said he was proud of how the team played this year because of how they came together as a unit.
This was the 11th straight year the OUA title was captured by U of T or Carleton, with the Varsity Blues winning eight of them.
The Ravens were handed silver medals after the game marking them as the OUA runners-up, but DiPerna said he’s already focusing on 2015.
“We need to bring that medal home,” he said. “We can’t leave it in Toronto.”
