Offence was the key to back-to-back wins for the Carleton Ravens men’s soccer team this week, thrashing RMC 4-0 on the road on Wednesday, then returning to Ottawa to top University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) 3-0 on Saturday and 3-1 to Trent on Sunday.
“Whenever you go down to RMC, it’s going to be a tough game,” said assistant coach Kwesi Loney.
The Ravens flew out of the gate. Mekonen Lovemore-White netted a goal in the fifth minute to open the scoring.
Theodore Lopez de Castilla then added to the lead in the 13th minute, seconds after RMC defender Simon Leslie was sent off with a red card.
Carleton continued to pressure the undermanned RMC squad, and Lovemore-White scored his second of the game in the 43rd minute to take a 3-0 lead into the half.
“Mekonen has scored more goals in five games than he has in the two seasons before, so that’s a positive for him, and good confidence for him,” Loney said. “He’s been working really hard. A player like that deserves those goals and he should get some more as he moves ahead.”
Danta Cobisa added a goal in the 66th minute to finish the game in a convincing manner for the Ravens.
Rookie keeper David Monk earned the win and the shutout in his CIS debut, stopping five shots along the way.
“We wanted to give him an opportunity to showcase,” Loney said of Monk.
Loney also stressed the importance of ensuring the keepers are on their toes and competitive with each other.
The Ravens then returned home to take on UOIT, a team they couldn’t beat last season.
“The guys came out really hungry, jumped on top of them, and played really good defence all game long,” Loney said.
Defence was the Ravens’ strength all game long, only allowing two shots in the first half and none in the second.
Andrew Bryan lead the way offensively, opening the scoring in the 11th minute.
Lovemore-White netted his team leading fifth goal of the season soon after in the 18th minute.
Bryan capped off an excellent season debut with his second goal of the game in the 85th minute to finish off the game.
“It feels great,” said Bryan after the game. “Glad to see my teammates are happy, glad to see the fans are happy . . . glad to see we can get the result.”
The Ravens continued their winning ways defeating Trent in a hard fought 3-1 decision on home soil. Goal scorers for Carleton were Dante Cobisa, Tim Campos, and Walker Smith.
“Everyone worked really hard—we saw lots of communication,” Loney said. “Things we worked on in training were actually coming out in the game.”
