In what had been called a grudge match by fans before a ball had even been kicked, it more than lived up to its billing.
Five yellow cards and 31 fouls slowed down the game as the referee had to take control of the rivalry rematch several times.
The Carleton Ravens men’s soccer team, coming off a 2-1 win over the University of Alberta Golden Bears on Saturday, fought for every ball against the McMaster Marauders Nov. 10 in Quebec City.
“It’s three games in three days and it’s very tough, the guys got up for it,” assistant coach Kwesi Loney said.
With thoughts of the 5-0 hammering they took in the OUA Final, they were keen to make sure history didn’t repeat itself.
“After they defeated us 5-0 in the OUA Finals, we wanted to come out here and show that it was not actually a 5-0 game,” striker Andrew Latty said.
But while the fouls helped control the game, it did slow down every attack the Ravens tried to make.
Both teams struggled to get the ball to their wings, with the majority of the first half playing out in the centre of the park. Midfielder Joey Kewin couldn’t find his rhythm on the wings, with McMaster’s right back taking every opportunity he could to try to kick lumps out of him.
With vocal backing from the Ravens alumni and fans in attendance, the Ravens did have several efforts saved by Marauders keeper Angelo Cavalluzzo.
With the half winding down, both teams had several chances from set plays, but neither could find a deadly ball into the box.
Theodore Lopez de Castilla was a rock in the centre of the park, and while some of his tackles verged on reckless, he controlled the game for the Ravens with his ball distribution.
The Ravens came sprinting out of the gates for the second half, with a header from Latty just tipped over to deny the striker his second goal of the tournament.
Sam McHugh, who had been carrying an ankle injury for the entire weekend, was subbed for striker Caki Simrooglu as Carleton pushed forward.
McMaster refused to buckle and got the chance to break ahead in the 56th minute. Michael Calof’s pass out of defence found Karl Bicamumpaka. Bicamumpaka surged past and lifted the ball over Krocko to grab a goal.
The Ravens game plan undone, they threw everything forward to try to grab a tying goal, but they struggled to get quality balls to the feet of Latty to bury past Cavalluzzo.
With 15 minutes left in the game, Carleton decided to introduce more of their fringe squad to give them valuable game time experience.
Jackson Bruce had a chance to seal the comeback for the Ravens in added time, but couldn’t stay on his feet to bury his shot.
“We came out really strong, but we made one mistake and they scored,” Calof said.
The final whistle blew and capped off what has been a very successful season for the Ravens.
With a 10-2-2 record in the regular season, and with young players like Calof and Latty already instrumental pieces, there’s a lot of hope for next season.
“Calof, Julian Picciolli, Theo de Castilla, you look at all these young guys coming in and the future looks very bright,” said Loney.
With nine recruits at the start of the season, and a change in game plans, the Ravens exceeded their own expectations for the season.
With Sam McHugh and Mark Krocko having pulled on the shirt for the final time, there will be even more opportunity for new players to step up next season and expectations remain high.
“At the end of the day, we got to Nationals which was exceeding our expectations but it shows that we should be here almost every year,” Latty said.
