The Carleton Ravens men’s soccer team pulled out a 3-2 victory against McGill University in their first preseason game of the 2019-2020 season.
For most of the first half, the Ravens seemed shaky, which would allow McGill to take control of the game as rookie forward, Jake Gerenraich, opened the scoring and made it a 1-0 game.
“Performances are always not going to be what we want them to be. We’ve got a lot of work to do to get back to where we want to be as a program, but we’ll take the win for today,” said Ravens Head Coach Kwesi Loney following the win.
As halftime approached, Carleton was struggling to create any chances. Even with the presence of Gaby Bitar, who was returning from a season playing for Calgary in the Canadian Premier League (CPL), Carleton lacked impetus.
It appeared McGill would not relinquish a goal on their own net, until Emad Houache whipped in a cross and Nikola Erak stretched out a leg to tie up the game.
“We brought Kyle in as a red shirt last year. He worked really hard—this is his year,” Loney said.
“So, we’re hoping that he can garner more minutes throughout the regular season, potentially challenge for the first spot and show his quality.”
McGill forward Mehdi Ibn-Brahim would then find the back of the net, as McGill once again pulled ahead of the Ravens.
McGill, however, would not be leading long, as Ravens forward Alexandar Kulic would once again make it a tied game.
The Ravens would eventually score the winning goal as forward Jeremy Aweya put the ball past McGill goalkeeper Chris Rossi and into the net.
Despite the win, Loney, Potter and Nick Jeffs all said there is a lot of work to be done if the team wants to be where they were at last season.
By putting both goalkeepers in net, the game allowed Jeffs and Potter to watch one another and get a feel on the others play.
“I think you have to start being critical in preseason. So, the fact that I conceded isn’t great. So reflect on it, talk to the coaches, see what I can do better,” Jeffs said.
“It’s definitely actually a really good experience because from up top, I can see the whole field and see what he sees from a keeper standpoint, so I can kind of put myself in his shoes, see what they’ve done, learn off it,” Potter said.
“Some things we do differently, but I reflect on what they’ve done and maybe I can learn a few things, take what he’s done and also modify it to my game, but also keep what I love about my game and combine it together,” he added.
In terms of the regular season, Loney voiced that work needs to be done heading into next game.
“We need to get back in and understand that if we want to get back to where we were last year, we need to fight for it, nothing is going to come easy,” the head coach said.
Feature image by Bailey Moreton
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article referred to the McGill University men’s soccer team as the Redmen. McGill no longer uses this name, and the article has been edited to reflect this. The Charlatan regrets the error.
