With another dominant weekend, the Carleton Ravens men’s soccer team proved they are the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East division team to beat as they took both games against the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) Paladins and outscored them 13-1.
The Ravens outplayed RMC Friday night, winning 5-1 on the Paladins’ home turf, before returning to the Ravens Perch and winning 8-0 on Sunday. The weekend was full of goals and standout performances for Carleton.
“I think we did a good job,” Ravens head coach Kwesi Loney said after Friday’s match. “[RMC] struggled to get a foothold [in] the game. When we lost the ball, we were eager to get it back. When you do that against an opposition, you break their rhythm.”
RMC had a fighting spirit—their starting keeper was sent off with a red card in the 60th minute of Friday’s game—but didn’t have much to show for it. The Ravens’ possession-based play proved to be too much to handle.
Still, for all the chances Carleton had on Friday, they failed to convert most of them and left goals on the board despite winning 5-1.
“We could’ve scored a few more, but that will come in time,” Loney said. “Guys made the right decisions at the right time and it was great to see that from them today.”
Loney said he hoped for better goal execution in Sunday’s game—a wish that was granted when Carleton played a rainy match at Ravens Perch.
Sunday: 8-0 Carleton win
The first 15 minutes of Sunday’s game looked promising for RMC until Carleton midfielder Emad Houache scored a free kick that killed the Paladins’ hopes.
From the right-centre edge of the box, Houache’s free kicked curled up and over the wall of defenders before striking the bar and hitting the back of the net. RMC’s backup keeper—playing in place of the starting keeper, who received an automatic suspension for his red card—didn’t have time to react.
To follow it up, two-time East division MVP Dario Conte scored another free kick from a similar position as Houache.
“It’s one of them,” Conte said when asked if that was the best goal he ever scored. “It’s nice to play with Luca [Piccioli] and some of the guys in the midfield. Just keeping position and making teams run—it’s a good feeling.”
Piccioli was another star in Sunday’s game, adding two goals to his season tally. Conte and Piccioli worked well together, seeming to have a fluent understanding of each other’s next move.
Conte, a natural defensive midfielder, occasionally drifted into an attacking position, looking to either receive a pass in the final third or add some pressure to RMC’s back line. Simultaneously, Piccoli, a natural attacking midfielder, often dropped into a defensive midfield position, covering for the attacking Conte.
This fluent switch would happen without verbal communication, something not often seen at this level of play.
“We have a lot of depth in [our midfield],” Loney said. “We try to get different rotations, different partnerships going. A part of that is [Conte] looking to be a little more advanced, depending on the game and depending on the opposition as well.”
Carleton is now the first team in the OUA to four wins this season and leads all OUA divisions with 12 points. But the game was more than just a victory for Carleton—it was also a showcase of soccer in Ottawa.
Nine of the 11 players selected by Loney to start on Sunday are from the Ottawa region, demonstrating the quantity and quality of the game locally and of Carleton’s soccer program.
“We want to make sure that [kids] understand that they don’t have to leave Ottawa to perform or get to the next level,” Loney said. “We’ve created something here for them.”
Despite the rainy and cold weather, fans still came out to support the team. Loney expressed support for the Ottawa community—from fans to local soccer clubs—as a fundamental part of Carleton’s program, producing talented players and local support.
After starting the season undefeated and playing four games in two weeks, the Ravens are breaking for a week before returning to play Oct. 15 against the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks.
Featured image by Spencer Colby
