The men’s soccer team won’t want to dwell on their disappointing early season road trip to Toronto. With a 1-0 loss to the University of Toronto Varsity Blues and a 2-2 tie against the Ryerson Rams, Queen’s was only able to pick up one point from the weekend and return to Kingston with a 1-2-1 record.
Head coach Chris Gencarelli said that the Toronto game was a very close match-up, but the Gaels just couldn’t convert opportunities into goals. The Varsity Blues capitalized on a Gaels mistake late in the first to score the only goal of the game.
“We had crazy chances,” he said. “[A] Lack of communication between our fullback and our center back allowed them to make a blindside run and score a goal.”
The weekend ended with a disappointing tie against the Ryerson Rams — a tie which Queen’s only secured in the final minutes.
“They weren’t the results that we were looking for,” he said. “We are making mistakes that other teams are capitalizing on. We have a good week of practice coming up and we’ll be ready to start the next weekend’s game.”
Although disappointed by the outcomes of the weekend, Gencarelli said that the season is still young and that he was encouraged by the team’s ability to battle back.
“It showed more than anything that our team has character and that we are not going to quit,” he said. “The season is very young and it was a tough road trip, two tough teams to play against.The results haven’t been there yet but I think the team is coming together and the results should come.”
Defender Justin Vermeer said the team knew Toronto would be a challenge, as the Varsity Blues have been one of the top teams for the last couple years.
“Toronto’s always a pretty rough road trip,” he said. “We were hoping to take some more points out of it. We’re going to have to start turning around. We can’t be dropping points like that.”
The Gaels’ game on Saturday at Ryerson brought back their scoring touch. Centre back David Tom scored his first CIS goal to tie the game at one apiece at the end of the first half. Although never holding the lead, the Gaels were able to fight their way back into the game with a last minute goal from Vermeer.
“It was good to get a tie,” he said. “It’s always tough to say that. We were really hoping for a win. A loss would have really hurt the record. It was an important goal but I feel like we should have been in a better spot than that to begin with.”
The Gaels weren’t looking to end their weekend road trip with only one point. However, midfielder Mike Arnold said grabbing the tie from the Rams gives Queen’s a foundation to build on.
“The tie isn’t the greatest,” he said. “At the same time, we went down 1-0 and were able to show enough character to come back … It’s still not a win but it’s more of an encouragement in of the character that our team’s showing. Even when we’re not playing well and not having a good game, that we can still come away and pull out points at the end.”
The men’s soccer team has conceded the weekend’s losses to a couple bad plays and bad luck. Arnold said that these early games will not dictate the pace of the season.
“We’re not happy that we’re 1-2-1 right now,” he said. “We’re learning how it feels to lose and we’re learning that we don’t like it so we’re using that to be even more motivated. We need to be focused, more encouraging of each other and just more confident.”
The Gaels will be in Peterborough to take on the Trent Excalibur on Saturday. Game starts at 3:15 p.m.
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