TORONTO, ON – The OUA men’s soccer playoffs got underway on Wednesday, with some intriguing – though not as much as the quarterfinal round – matchups. As you’d expect with knockout football, each team was fighting for their lives and no side really had a poor game, a refreshing sight given there were a lot of blowouts in the regular season.
One would also want drama and storylines to come out of the playoffs; this year, it certainly has. Before we dive into the games, I thought we’d take a brief look at what the next round holds. TMU will travel to Ontario Tech in a must-watch game, a battle between two squads who specialize in finding the back of the net.
TMU won their only game against Tech this year 2-0. Then, Toronto has the unfortunate luck of travelling to Carleton, the best team in the OUA this year. Western and York will do battle before the nightcap of McMaster versus Brock.
Now that you’ve got a glimpse of the future, let’s see how four of those teams got to this point.
OUA East: Queen’s Gaels 1-3 Toronto Varsity Blues
This was not how it was supposed to play out. The Queen’s Gaels had scored seven goals against Toronto this season, yet for the life of them, they couldn’t score on the day.
The top goals and assists contributor in the OUA, Pablo Hempelmann-Perez, fell dormant. Especially odd given he was on form. Matthew Ciavarro, one of the most talismanic number nines in the conference, barely got any looks. It was as a whole a very unfortunate string of events for Queen’s. Without a clicking offence, their defence wasn’t even too bad. The big centre-back Ian Ferguson scored a powerful header to open the match, but Toronto was able to respond quickly.
To the Varsity Blues’ credit, they found new ways to attack. With Queen’s holding a high block, Toronto found the job of breaking the line to be tough. Nino Nikolovski had enough following going down, and his answer set the tone for the rest of the match: an outside-the-box screamer which was unsavable for Connor Adams. To further strengthen the case for a Toronto win, he repeated the feat, this time at the other end.
Nikolovski was the biggest difference-maker on the field for finishing those audacious shots, but it is worth mentioning Michael Maslanka, who assisted both before scoring a goal for himself, from a much closer range. Maslanka was crucial in pinging the ball back and forth on the edge of the area to set up Nikolovski. It’s good that he’ll get recognition after sealing the victory too.
It’s safe to say Queen’s maybe didn’t see the Blues adapting as quickly as they did, but it was a good season for them. With plenty of exciting players, we could see their badge represented at the Canadian Premier League Draft soon enough. As for Toronto, it was a relatively shock win, and even if they have to be on the road again playing a tough team, they’re happy to still be there.
OUA East: TMU Bold 3-0 Nipissing Lakers
It’s safe to say that although the Nipissing Lakers bowed out early as they were expected to, they still made quite the impression. Playing a defensive-heavy structure, they held TMU from making consistent progressive strides down the pitch.
Marking every man, the Bold just couldn’t figure out their opponent. It took until the 60th minute when the incredible, inevitable Chris Campoli broke through. His 13th goal in all competitions came at just the right time, and he figured out the way to beat the Lakers’ defence: bolt into the box out of midfield, before smashing it home. While Kai Martin dragged defenders out wide Campoli snuck into the mixer.
Nipissing never had the offensive firepower to challenge TMU and equalize. They put in a valiant effort, but the wheels quickly came off. There was no cohesiveness among the offensive ranks, and poor distribution out of the back. Even when they repeatedly forced TMU into resets, there was not an aggressive press.
Of course, you can’t ask too much of a program that snuck into the playoffs with a record not flattering at all. What matters is, for a whole hour they held the Golden Boot winner off the scoresheet. Ryan Miners was very impressive with five saves.
TMU did well for the rest of the match to close it out, scoring twice in the process. It was Jaylen Drummond who scored the second on a great shot on thr ground from inside the box, curling into the far corner. He cut in from the right flank, an area of dominance for the Bold. They repeatedly played the ball out there and it worked like a charm.
OUA West: McMaster Marauders 1-0 Laurier Golden Hawks
This was far from an exciting match. Neither team came out and dominated, with both locked in a stalemate for a long time. The battle ramped up as the minutes went on, and the goalkeepers started to steal the show.
McMaster’s Ethan Cagalj made an astonishing six stops while his Laurier counterpart David Carano made three. Unfortunately for the Golden Hawks, he couldn’t make the big save when it was needed most: a short-range goal came from McMaster courtesy of Cristian Alfieri. A little flick-on caught the goalkeeper off guard.
McMaster were there low-scoring self, but if they are to go a step further they’ll want to push the offensive memo a bit. Holding strong for 120 minutes is a positive, but eventually all those shots against will catch up to Cagalj. If anything, it was a bit of defensive unrest on show. McMaster moves on by the skin of their teeth, which much more work to be done between Thursday and Saturday.
READ MORE ON MCMASTER MEN’S SOCCER
OUA West: Guelph Gryphons 1-2 Western Mustangs
Dino Bontis was always going to steal the show. If anyone could keep the Mustangs in this match for the long haul, it’d be him. Seven stops proved his worth, and Fayo Adeyemo came through in the 98th minute in what turned out to be the winning goal in the additional frame.
Both teams exchanged blows in the first half before Guelph kept pouring on the pressure come the second. Pushed on by their home support, the Gryphons absorbed the offensive movements Western had to offer. Whenever you run into Bontis, you run into one of the most consistent goalkeepers, and just get unlucky. It was typical of one of the OUA’s rising stars.
Also worth mentioning is Western coming through with a couple of goals, that’s a very positive note to look at going into another difficult playoff fixture.