The Carleton Ravens men’s soccer team defeated the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Ridgebacks 7-0 on Oct. 29 at MNP Park. With the win, the Ravens eliminated UOIT and are now headed into the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Final Four for the first time since 2013.
The Ravens came into the game as a heavy favorite, finishing the season in first place in the OUA East, while UOIT finished fourth with Carleton winning both of their regular season matchups.
Despite the rainy weather, the Ravens were able to get on the board first. Fifteen minutes into the game, Ravens forward Stefan Karajovanovic received a pass from forward Jimi Aribido and blasted the ball past Ridgebacks goaltender Nicholas Miller.
Five minutes before the end of the first half, Aribido picked up another assist when he passed the ball to Ravens midfielder and team captain Tristan St. Pierre who then put the ball into the back of the net. This would be St. Pierre’s first goal of the season.
Soon after, Ravens forward Ricky Comba took a pass from Karajovanovic and sent the ball into the net to give the Ravens a 3-0 lead heading into the second half.
The Ravens came out strong in the second half, continuing to control play throughout. The Ravens extended their lead to 4-0 when Karajovanovic was able to beat Miller again and score.
Two minutes later, Ravens forward Dario Conte launched the ball past the UOIT goaltender from the 30-yard line to make the game 5-0.
Before the game ended, Carleton would add two more goals to the tally. The first came when Comba launched the ball from midfield to Conte who scored his second of the game. Soon after, Carleton was awarded a penalty kick.
Ravens defenseman Diego Politis was the one to take the penalty kick and sent the ball sailing into the back of the net to have the Ravens walk away with a 7-0 victory.
“I’m honestly ecstatic. I’ve played here for four years and I’ve never made it to Final Four, unfortunately getting cut out at the group stage, so this is something new for me. I mean, to win by that margin on any game, really, is exciting but in a playoff game it means that much more, and I got my first goal of the season too, which I’m quite happy about too,” St. Pierre said.
Head coach Kwesi Loney said he was pleased with the way the team played.
“I was happy to see us execute how we wanted to execute. We worked on a lot of stuff in the last couple of weeks to get us prepared for this game and it was good to see us come into the game consciously knowing we want to execute and get the results from it,” Loney said.
But, he added that the team will need to stay focused in order to advance further.
“We just want to be able to sharpen our processes. Right now we want to make sure that we’re still moving the ball from left to right, [that] we are strong and sound defensively because now we’re going to play against some very tough opposition,” Loney said. “We have to be able to be patient and be able to take our chances because we may only get two or three in a game, so we have to make sure we’re able to take those.”
The Ravens will now face off against the McMaster Marauders in the OUA Final Four. McMaster finished second in the OUA West division and was able to defeat the Guelph Gryphons 1-0 in their first round of the playoffs.
McMaster entered the post-season with a record of 8-1-1, the same as the Ravens, but the team struggled defensively allowing 20 goals against this season, the most of any team to make the playoffs.
The Ravens and Marauders will face off on Nov. 3 to see who will continue onto the OUA finals.
