Men’s soccer team climbs into playoff contention with convincing victories over U of T and York
By Josh Brown
Call the bomb squad because the Rams men’s soccer team’s offense has exploded.
With a 3-1 win over U of T and a 4-0 thrashing of York last week, the Rams have collected their first two wins of the season and can rightfully call themselves the university soccer kings of Toronto.
“When teams play us they have to get ready for a hard game,” said forward Ivano Deluca. “They can think what they want but as soon as we step out onto the field we’re going to take the game.”
The offensive outburst can be attributed to Deluca who scored four of the Rams seven goals last week and 18-year-old C.Y. Paul who scored the other three.
“We decided it’s about time we started scoring,” Paul said. “We’re finally starting to click, were playing good soccer now.”
The Rams struck early at York on Saturday scoring in the first ten minutes of play. Although York kept the pressure of goalie John Moerman, he managed to turn away 15 shots for his first shutout.
“I felt a little off my game today,” Moerman said. “York had their chances but they were too weak up front. Our defence had no trouble handling them, the guys did everything today.”
The highlight of the game was the celebration after Paul scored his second goal of the game.
Paul, along with three other teammates ran over to the corner flag, took their shirts off and circled the flag wiggling their bodies in jubilee. Paul calls it the Nigerian dance.
“The dance is from the World Cup, Nigeria does it all the time. After you score, you run over to the corner flag, do a little Lambada stuff, take your shirt off and circle around your shirt.”
Although the York Yeomen didn’t look too impressed by the dancing, the Rams improved their record to 2-3-1.
“We’ve finally gelled as a team,” said defender Vince Franze. “Everybody is playing excellent from the back four to the midfield to the forwards, were just playing absolutely incredible.”
There were several remarkable individual efforts during Saturday’s win, from defencemen Anthony Chisholm and Franze to midfielder Solomon Amoako to forwards Paul, Deluca and Jason Egres.
Coach Stuart Miller attributes the Rams success to a combination of hard work and a deep bench.
“It feels great to win two in a row, it’s been a long time coming but we’ve worked hard for it. You can’t win in this league without a strong bench. I’ve already used 20 players this season compared to 11 last year. It’s nice to know I can put any one of my players on the field and they’ll do the job.”
The Rams play U of t next Saturday at 1 p.m. and host Queens Sunday at 3 p.m. at Birchmount Stadium.
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