The Ravens men’s soccer team are one win closer towards this year’s U Sports Men’s soccer championship, after defeating the Nipissing University Lakers 5-1 at MNP Park on Oct. 28.
After finishing the season in first place of the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East standings for the second year in a row, the Ravens are once again fighting to become the OUA representative for the tournament in Vancouver.
In front of a lively crowd of family, friends, and even some alumni, the Ravens entered the game knowing they had to give a solid performance in order to beat an impressive Nipissing Lakers squad.
Head coach Kwesi Loney said it was important for the Ravens to not put “too much value on the regular season games” against their opponents.
“They’re a good team to make it as far as they have,” Loney said. “They’re well-coached and teams are different when they enter the playoffs.”
Right from the start, the Ravens came out with a burst of energy and, after only two minutes, were given a penalty. The shot was saved by the Lakers goalkeeper to keep it level at 0-0.
It didn’t take long for the Ravens to find their breakthrough goal when defender Christopher Malekos’ powerful header hit the back of the net moments later to make it 1-0.
The Lakers were not about to give up that easily though and were working well along the wings and routinely adding pressure to Carleton’s defence.
The Ravens were able to double their lead when a long ball from Malekos found Gabriel Bitar—who ran towards the Nipissing goal without a defender in sight.
The only option for the Lakers’ keeper was to come out and challenge Bitar, but he clipped Bitar and gave the Ravens another penalty opportunity.
This time, Bitar successfully converted in the 29th minute and the score remained 2-0 going into halftime.
After the break, the Ravens played even better than they did during the first 45 minutes.
They remained calm, maintained more possession, made better passes, and creatively positioned themselves among their opponents to score more goals.
Three minutes into the second half, Jimi Aribido teed-up teammate Dario Conte to make it 3-0. Aribido then added a fourth after capitalizing on a Nipissing error.
While the score line was not in favour of the Lakers, they remained persistent with the pressure and managed to bag a consolation goal, but forward Stefan Karajovanovic brought the goal differential back to four by scoring the game’s fifth goal.
The win means the Ravens will move onto the Final Four round of the OUA playoffs alongside York University, Western University, and Ryerson University.
Looking ahead into the team’s future, Loney emphasized that the team must remain focused after advancing to this level in the playoffs.
“Staying focused, playing for a full 90 minutes, being present in every moment of the game itself and not just focusing on the end result is important,” said Loney. “We’re only going to play good teams now—there is nobody that’s bad. Everybody is good.”
The Ravens are set to play their first game of the OUA Men’s Soccer Final Four against the Western Mustangs at MNP Park on Nov. 3.
Photo by Tim Austen
