Alexander Colle | Sports Editor
Featured image: York wins their fourth OUA championship in the last five years. | Basma Elbahnasawy
After losing two of their first three games to start the season, the York men’s soccer club went undefeated the rest of the way, en route to a record of 13-2-1. The Lions ended their successful OUA season by taking down the Carleton Ravens in the OUA Championship game, their fourth provincial championship in the last five years.
It was a thrilling ride to the finish for the Lions, who had to first go through the Ryerson Rams in their Final Four matchup on Friday afternoon at Alumni Field.
In attendance was a large and animated crowd filled with fans from both teams that hoped their team would secure a berth in the OUA Finals.
Ryerson led a push into the front third in the 22nd minute, and Misel Klisara crossed the ball into the York box. Amidst several York defenders was Ram Raheem Rose, who managed to get a foot on the crossed ball, collect himself, and blast it home for his second of the playoffs.
Coming out of the gate in the second half, York looked visibly frustrated while attempting to make several desperation plays, which did not produce any results.
With five minutes of extra time having been added to the end of the half, York was on their final legs in the 95th minute when every Lion, including goalkeeper Quillan Roberts, found their way into the front third, in hopes of a final desperation play to tie the game.
With possession at the half line, Roberts blasted the ball into the cluster of York and Ryerson players crammed into the Ryerson box hoping for a York player to come away with it. Miraculously, the ball would deflect off a Ryerson defender and onto the head of Lion Omar Marzouk, who headed it home to tie the game up in the final seconds of play.
After 30 minutes of overtime solved nothing, the game went to penalties to decide who would make an appearance in the OUA Championship game.
After Roberts made a thrilling save on the first Ryerson attempt, York and Ryerson would trade goals until Dylan Carreiro stepped up to the line for his chance to bring York the victory. Facing off against Ram goalkeeper Praveen Ahilan, Carreiro made no mistake, blasting it into the left side of the net, giving York the incredible come-from-behind victory.
It was on Saturday when the much-anticipated first-against-first matchup occurred between the Lions and the Carleton Ravens. Facing the only team in the league that bested them in points for and against, the Lions knew they had a tough matchup ahead of them on their home turf.
In a first half that mostly consisted of failed scoring chances, York finally got the chance they needed just seconds before the first-half whistle, when a streaking Jonathan Lao found Carreiro coming up the left wing. After getting past a couple of defenders, Carreiro blasted home his first of the playoffs into the bottom right-hand corner of the net to give York a 1-0 lead going into the break.
In the second half, the Lions were looking for an insurance goal to put the game to bed. In the 70th minute they got just that, when striker Joey Cicchillo, in his final OUA game, lead a York charge into the front third that saw him beat the last Carleton defender.
With only the keeper to beat, Carleton goalkeeper Nick Jeffs came out of his box to pressure the fifth-year Toronto native, but was unable to stop Cicchillo, as the striker snuck it past the keeper for York’s second and final goal of the game.
This goal would put the game out of reach for the Ravens, who could not get a single shot past Roberts, who finished with five stops and a clean sheet.
“I thought we were solid,” said Head Coach Carmine Isacco.
“I thought we stuck to our responsibilities. Our players came in and did a good job for us—Andre Dyer came in after having not played much this year and was a stalwart defensive midfielder, Cristian Cavallini up top was solid, and our back four were compact and good.”
When asked of the importance of getting the win at home, Isacco stated that “it was good for our seniors for sure. Cicchillo, Lao, and De Vante Walker have invested a lot of time in our program not only as athletes but as students, so it was crucial to them. It’s fantastic to see them go out with a win, because they’re great people.”
Next up for the men is a trip to Kamloops, British Columbia, for the U SPORTS Respect Group Men’s Soccer championship this week.
Their first matchup will be a quarter-final game on November 9 against a Thompson Rivers WolfPack squad, who finished the season with a record of 6-3-6. Kick-off is at 5 p.m.
