It was a disappointing weekend for the men’s soccer team, who went into a long road trip with high expectations but earned only a single point from two games. They picked up a 1-1 draw against the Nipissing Lakers Saturday in North Bay but fell 2-1 to the Laurentian Voyageurs Sunday in Sudbury.
Nipissing and Laurentian finished with 18 and 16 points respectively last season, well below Queen’s 22, but they’re now both ahead of the Gaels in the standings this year.
Fourth-year defender Michael Zanetti said Queen’s should have done better against the Lakers and Voyageurs.
“Obviously, going into the weekend trip here, you’re always expecting more than one point,” he said. “Going into this weekend, we were really hoping to take six [from two wins], but things didn’t quite work out
that way.”
Zanetti said the Gaels didn’t make the best use of their scoring chances.
“We had some opportunities to really start taking the game to the other team,” he said. “The first game, we were kind of all over them and they get one lucky bounce, they get a penalty, and we’re down behind the eight ball. It’s important to just keep your head in the game and really take your opportunities.”
Head coach Carlo Cannovan said he had hoped to win at least one of this
weekend’s games.
“We were going into this weekend with a couple key injuries, so we knew we were going in thin, but we were expecting to come away with at least three points if not more, so it’s a little disappointing” he said.
Cannovan said the team needs to focus on maintaining possession of the ball.
“We were trying to force too many things,” he said. “We had a lot of players in positions that they’re not accustomed to, due to injuries, and they were just trying to do too much. They were just giving possession of the ball away.”
Cannovan said he was impressed with the way his team battled back against Nipissing, though.
“They went down a goal due to a questionable penalty, but they showed a lot of character,” he said. “They came back in the second half and tied the game, and we could have won the game.”
Cannovan said there’s plenty of work still to be done before the team faces the Royal Military College Paladins tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 at Richardson Stadium.
Cannovan said he expects better results when they host the Lakers and Voyageurs next weekend.
“The boys know as well as the coaching staff that these teams are beatable,” he said. “We can beat these teams and we can play a lot better than we’ve shown this weekend.”
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