Ryerson men’s soccer extends their win streak to eight

By Matt Ouellet

The starters of the Ryerson men’s soccer team (8-0-0) were given the day off against the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) (1-7-0) but that didn’t stop them from beating the last place team in the Ontario University Athletics’ (OUA) east division 4-0 Sunday.

With the grueling game against division rival Queen’s out of the way the coaching staff, while eager to test the depth of Ryerson’s skill, were definitely taking RMC just as seriously as any other team.

“Anyone that’s seen our games in the past against RMC, it’s always pretty tight,” associate coach Filip Prostran said. “By no means are they a pushover, they’re a hardworking team, well coached.”

With that in mind, Prostran and staff were careful, but experimental, in their positioning of players, including defender Kyle Stewart.

“The coaches realized that I’m very aggressive when it comes to winning the ball, and they’ve been working on me being offensive,” Stewart said. “They’ve put me up in the offensive area because I’m a great ball winner and they know I’ll keep it simple at times, and that’s all you need to score.”

And that is exactly how Ryerson opened the scoring in the first half as Stewart made a thunderous kick in the 25th minute that soared straight past the opposing goalkeeper.

While the rest of the first half was scoreless, it didn’t take long into the second half for the action to pick, when Jamie Baker fired a shot from midfield and into the RMC net in the 49th minute, his second goal of the weekend.

RMC played consistently and held a strong defensive line, though none of their five shots taken were a serious threat of actually scoring. Alternate goalkeepers Praveen Ahilan and Alex Christie combined for the clean sheet.

Viktor Anastasov scored his fourth goal of the season (now tied for first in season goals with Marko Miketic) in the 81st minute, and first year player Andrew Cilta scored the first of his OUA career in the last play of the game.

The Rams next play the University of Toronto at Monarch Park on Saturday, Sept. 27 at 2:15 p.m.