By Tagwa Moyo
The Ryerson men’s soccer team is down but certainly not out.
The Rams men’s soccer played in the OUA Final Four tournament on Saturday against the McMaster Marauders at York University. The Rams were trying to erase last years memory of losing to the Marauders in the same game just one year ago, unfortunately, they weren’t able to do so losing 1-0.
The Rams started the game off strong defensively stopping all attacking efforts from the Marauders. As the first half continued on the Rams offence started to put pressure on McMasters’ defence.
The Rams best opportunity came around the 14th minute, the Rams were able to get a free kick just outside of the Marauders 18 yard box. Ryerson captain Martin Dabrowski stepped up to take the free kick, Dabrowski curled the free kick around the Marauders defence but was stopped by a diving McMaster keeper.
Going into halftime no team had a clear advantage on the other and both teams came out of the halftime break determined to break the gridlock. In the 54th minute Rams got one of their best chances the saw striker Nick Lambis narrowly miss a header off of a cross.
McMaster wasted little time capitalizing off of the Rams missed opportunity. In the 57th minute McMaster opened up the scoring as the Rams were unable to clear a bouncing ball out of the team’s 18 yard box.
Although the Marauders took the lead, the Rams continued in their attempts to get on the score sheet. In order to try and break through the McMaster defence the Rams brought in veteran attacking players Jamie Baker and Luka Lee. Baker wasted no time putting pressure on the Marauders defence powering past the defence but blasting a shot high and wide around the 60th minute.
After not converting offensive opportunities tempers started to flare. Rams keeper Praveen Ahilan received a yellow card after pushing down a McMaster striker. The Rams never managed to break past the Marauders keeper, and after many shots on goal the team took the second straight OUA final four loss to McMaster Marauders.
Although the Rams hopes of winning the OUA are gone, their hopes of making it to nationals is still alive after the York Lions defeated the University of Toronto Blues in their final four match up.
The Rams will have their chance to book their ticket to the CIS Final 8 if they manage to defeat U of T in the OUA bronze medal game. The Rams have faced the Blues twice this season winning the first matchup and losing the last game just a few weeks ago. The bronze medal game will be played Sunday at 11:00 a.m. at York Stadium.
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