270 minutes. That’s how long the Carleton Ravens men’s soccer team has gone without allowing a goal so far this season.
The Ravens defeated the Laurentian University Voyageurs 2-0 Sept. 18, extending their winning — and shutout — streak to three games to start the season.
In their first road game of the season, Justin Campos put the Ravens up early with a goal in the 8th minute and Sam McHugh added to the lead with a free-kick goal in the 70th.
Ravens head coach Sandy Mackie attributed the team’s early success to two things in particular.
“We’ve been defending well,” Mackie said. “We also got some players back from injury, like [goalkeeper] Karl Wasslen.”
Wasslen was injured last season, but has started this year’s campaign with three straight shutouts.
Despite their strong start to the season, Mackie said he believes there is still some room for improvement.
“We need to work on our discipline,” Mackie said. “There were some bad tackles, some players were sent off. We also had a lot of chances to score.”
The Ravens were also scheduled to play Sept. 19 against the Nipissing Lakers; however, due to poor field conditions the game was postponed to a later date.
Mackie said he was not happy with the ruling and would have preferred playing on a different field rather than rescheduling the game altogether.
As a result of their strong play, the Ravens are now ranked 10th in this week’s Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) “top ten” rankings., after receiving 10 first-place votes.
This is the first time the Ravens have been ranked this season. The University of Western Mustangs are the top ranked Ontario University Athletics (OUA) team at third in the country.