The Carleton Ravens men’s soccer team was left stunned with a goalless draw against the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks on Sunday afternoon, ending their win streak at five games and handing the Ravens their first draw of the year.
The draw followed Carleton’s Friday night annihilation of Ontario Tech, when they defeated the Ridgebacks 7-1.
Friday, Oct. 15: Ravens walk over Ontario Tech with 7-1 win
Friday’s match at Vaso’s Field in Oshawa, Ont. was a one-sided game filled with goals from the Ravens.
The Ravens got off to a strong start as they dominated possession and executed passes with precision. This led to an early fourth-minute goal with Matteo de Brienne beating Ontario Tech’s keeper to a long ball and chipping it into the Ridgebacks’ net. He celebrated by doing a front flip before the rest of the Ravens starting 11 rushed over to congratulate him.
The Ridgebacks briefly composed themselves after the poor start, but it was only another 25 minutes until the Ravens scored again. It was Carleton’s devastating counterattack that saw a beautiful pass played through to Scott Mazzotta, whose shot slipped through the gloves of the goalkeeper.
Weather conditions played a factor all night and certainly did for Mazzotta’s goal.
“We talked about enjoying it, enjoy playing in the rain,” Ravens head coach Kwesi Loney said. “If you want to know if a player’s good or not, you put him in wet conditions.”
The Ravens excelled despite the conditions, scoring two goals within one minute and adding another just before halftime. The score was 5-0 for the Ravens at the break.
Gabriel Bitar completed his hat trick 57 seconds into the second half. Both teams would add a goal each as the Ridgebacks resorted to defending deeper in hopes of protecting their goal differential from further harm.
Sunday, Oct. 17: Complacency to blame for 0-0 draw
Sunday’s game between the two sides saw a mediocre performance from the Ravens and a much improved performance from the Ridgebacks.
The Ridgebacks had better goal-scoring opportunities in the first half, with Ravens goalkeeper Kyle Potter having to bail his team out with stellar saves in the 12th, 36th and 45th minute. Those opportunities led to members of the Ravens coaching staff, including Loney, becoming visibly angry and yelling at their players—something not often seen.
The fans at the Ravens Perch seemed to be more upset with the referee than disappointed with Carleton’s five-game winning streak ending. The first official made a handful of decisions against the Ravens which drew angry cries from spectators.
“The referee is not on our team, so we got to take care of ourselves,” Loney said. “The officials are the officials. They’re going to get calls wrong and at the end of the day we can’t allow it to impact or influence how we’re playing.”
The Ridgebacks continued to frustrate the Ravens in the second half. They constantly suffocated the midfield, making it difficult for the Ravens to gain possession in the middle of the pitch. Loney said he felt the Ridgebacks made an adjustment from Friday night that the Ravens failed to answer.
“They moved their centre-back [defender] into the midfield,” Loney said. “That posed some challenges for us … and we didn’t do a particularly good job of adjusting to it.”
Loney said the team needs to play more positively than negatively, which means maintaining possession and looking to make more forward passes rather than passes away from the opposition’s goal.
“We need to realize that in order for us to play [a possession-based play-style], we’ve got to fight through it,” Loney said. “We got to find different ways to keep the ball. We gotta keep it circulating.”
Friday night’s victory allowed the Ravens to get too comfortable on Sunday. It was an easy but costly mistake to make, according to Loney.
“We got a bit complacent,” Loney said. “We’ll take the point [in the standings], but we could’ve fought for the three a bit harder.”
With an eye on the standings as the season nears its conclusion, the Ravens will play two games against the York University Lions this weekend.
Featured image by Anya Swettenham.
