Men's soccer wins first playoff game
By Ryan Rogers
Sports Editor
October 31, 2007
The Lancers Men’s soccer team frustrated one of their long-time rivals in the Laurier Golden Hawks, shutting them out in the first round of the OUA playoffs last Wednesday. The Lancers, who qualified for the playoffs with games to spare, beat Laurier earlier that week, 3-0 and were prepared to face off in Waterloo.
Early in the first half, Chris Gregg scored for the Lancers. And with the lead, the Lancers were satisfied to keep their players back and play strong defense. In so doing, the Laurier Golden Hawks pinched many of their players forward, opening up a lot of space in the backfield – space that Mike Collavino took advantage of late in the second half.
The second goal came after Laurier had incredible ball possession and pressure on the Lancer net. Of his goal Collavino said, “I went on the counter attack, and Mark Mills played a nice ball over the D’s (defense’s) head, and the D went to head it on to the goalie, and [I] sort of ran around him and slipped it into the net.” The ball squirreled around the goal-keeper and rolled slowly across the line.
“At the time it went pretty slow,” commented Collavino. “It seemed like a minute went by.” The Laurier pressure on the Lancer’s end was building a lot of tension on Windsor, but the second goal helped to calm their nerves.
“It was really relieving, more so to take some pressure off of us,” said Collavino. “We were only up one (to) nothing, so to get a second goal was a big thing. Especially when they’re pressuring us.”
Preserving the shutout was first-year goalkeeper Dejo Olagbegi, who said the pressure wasn’t distracting him. “I was very comfortable back there, I was more comfortable with my defense,” said Olagbegi. “I know that they’ll come through for me every time. It’s more satisfying when you know your defense is out there to keep the pressure off you. But there was a lot of pressure on the back there.”
Confidence in his defense aside, watching the second goal roll in was a pleasant sight. “I was relieved. Completely relieved because I figured that, the way they (Laurier) were pressuring us, we might give in. Fortunately we didn’t give in. When that second goal went in, that just took a whole lot of pressure off of us,” said Olagbegi.
Head Coach Steve Hart had used both his goalies regularly throughout the season, and had to make a tough choice selecting Olagbegi. “They’re (goalies Olagbegi and Dan Mendonca) both very good. They’ve both got great attributes, very different attributes and you know it’s like any coaching decision you go with your gut instinct. They’re both great goalkeepers and it’s hard to pick one over the other,” said Hart.
After the second goal, Hart saw a difference in his players. “It took a bit of pressure off. It was a lot more relaxed after that. We played a lot better. That’s what always happens, is the other team starts pushing and pushing and pushing and creating those gaps in the back end. We did exploit them well,” he felt.
Windsor has hope for the future as their young team is almost 43 per cent first-year players with success on artificial turf, like the one at Alumni Field on the Laurier campus. The stadium at the University of Windsor is expected to have an artificial turf installed by next season, strengthening the Lancers’ chances of building a perennial winner in Windsor.
Lancers drop quarter-finals match 3-1 to York Lions
On Saturday, the Lancers played the second-place York Lions in the OUA quarter finals. Head coach Steve Hart said the Lion’s took an early lead due to “a very puzzling penalty decision by the ref five minutes into the game, which forced us to change our tactics.” Down 2-0 at half time, they poured on the pressure holding the ball in the Lion’s zone. They were rewarded with a goal from Darrin Dielemans, and hit the crossbar, before York struck again to finish off the scoring 3-1.
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