The Carleton Ravens men’s soccer team will advance to the semifinals winning a clash with the McMaster Marauders 3-1 in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) quarter-final game.
Ravens Perch rumbled with excitement on a cold, wintery Ottawa night. Wednesday was the team’s first OUA playoff game in almost two years. The home crowd at Ravens Perch, along with the Ravens’ starting 11, were hoping Carleton would get a strong start.
The Ravens netted two goals in the opening 10 minutes, with defender Raphaël Garcia and midfielder Scott Mazzotta adding to their scoring tally in the eighth and 11th minutes respectively.
“We feel like we can come out and be the aggressor right away,” Ravens head coach Kwesi Loney said. “Once you go up two [goals], our responsibility is just to manage the rest of the game.”
The opening goal saw the returning Dario Conte switch the play with his renowned long ball to Garcia. Garcia knocked down a pass to defender Tareq Hamad who took his time to pick out a pass to Luca Piccioli. Piccioli then threaded a wonderful ball that split the gap of the Marauders’ left flank back to the advancing Garcia.
Garcia whipped in a curling cross with his right foot to midfielder Ricky Comba, who swung at the ball but appeared to have missed it. Mazzotta followed close behind Comba and jumped over the ball, fooling the Marauders’ goalkeeper. The goalie dove the wrong way and the ball rolled into the back of the net.
While it was unclear whether Comba made contact with the ball, it was Garcia who celebrated and was credited with the opening goal.
“We gave away a couple of easy goals at the beginning and you can’t do that to a good team,” McMaster head coach Dino Perri said. “Tactically, we were fine. To be honest, [Carleton] didn’t really create a lot of good chances. I think we created more chances than they did, but they just capitalized on their [chances] and made us pay for it.”
Carleton continued to dominate possession and kept McMaster on defence. The Marauders wasted their few scoring opportunities in the first half.
McMaster strategically started to send more players forward in hopes of getting a quick goal. It may have almost worked if it wasn’t for a terrific save by Carleton goalkeeper Kyle Potter. However, the save was met with complaints from McMaster as the players claimed Hamad’s hand was used to deflect the strike from a McMaster volley into the crossbar.
To make matters worse for McMaster, Piccioli—who assisted both of Carleton’s goals—crossed a ball that hit the dangling arm of a Marauder defender and resulted in a penalty kick for the Ravens.
The McMaster players yelled to the ref protesting the call, but Conte converted the penalty to give the Ravens a 3-0 lead at the half.
“We could’ve had a call go our way,” Perri said. “[The Ravens] had a call go their way, they go up three-nil and it’s a totally different ball game.”
Perri said McMaster’s season was disappointing and that the poor results they picked up in the regular season led to a tough first-round opponent in the playoffs.
Coach Loney said his team is getting ready for nationals. However, games like these are very important and Loney said he’s proud of how his team has grown throughout the season.
“We’ve done a fantastic job all season long of just growing,” Loney said. “It was great for us to see us do that again today so hopefully we can do that again next week.”
The Carleton Ravens will continue to pursue their OUA championship run against the number one seed, the Guelph Gryphons, on Saturday at the Gryphon Soccer Complex.
Featured image by Spencer Colby.
