Back to back wins rank Lancers 2nd in OUA
By Chris Kerr
Sports Editor
September 30, 2009
 The Lancer Men’s soccer team dominated McMaster and Brock, allowing no goals against them all weekend and steadily climbing the Ontario University Athletics ranking.
On Saturday’s game against the McMaster Marauders, the Lancers demonstrated once again that they deserve the title as hungriest team in the OUA.
In the first half of the game, both teams seemed evenly matched.
Most of the game was being battled in the mid-field, with the defence on both sides being solid.
The first half ended with a couple of scoring attempts by the Lancers.
The overcast skies turned to a subtle but constant drizzle by the second half of the game, causing the turf to be slippery for the players.
The action started to heat up during the second half.
In the 54th minute of the game Lancers mid-fielder Eric Cirovski fired a clear shot just above the top goal bar.
Only seven minutes later, Cirovski made a successful second attempt and made the score 1-0.
“[Cirovski’s goal was] right off the training ground,” said Coach Steve Hart, “[In practice] We worked it through the centre, pushing it out wide and banging it right to the guy coming in. It’s something we’ve worked hard to produce and it’s nice when it shows up on the field.”
Cirovski, who had already played an amazing game, rung the ball off the post less than five minutes after his goal.
Dan Mendonca looked bored in the second half due to the defensive power of the “C+Arlo” line of former Arnhem Vitesse pro Arlo Hemkes and Carlo D’Emilio.
“The defence were marvellous,” said Hart.
“I would take our defence over anybody’s because we are so solid. You can guarantee one hundred percent on everybody from [Mendonca] the goalkeeper out to the rest of the players.”
Lancer forward Ryan Wise played another great game. His speed played a major role in getting to the ball first and maintaining possession.
With this victory, Coach Hart was fairly confident in his team going into the second game on Sunday against the Brock Badgers.
“You always worry about fatigue in the second game but [Brock] played [on Saturday] too. And we looked very good today,” said Hart.
Though Hart admits that he does not necessarily like a rotational style, it’s a reality that he is forced with when his team plays back to back games.
“We’re really trying hard to manage our players on the field. We need to make sure that there are fresh legs on the field the next day. The players understand that and they’re looking very good indeed.”
The Lancers would come to look very good in the second game against Brock.
Due to stellar defence on both sides of the field the game was scoreless until Lancer mid-fielder Darrin Dielemans got the game-winner in the 74th minute of the game.
Ten minutes later, Ryan Wise nailed a security goal past Brock goalkeeper Jodun Gergory to give the Lancers a final score of 2-0.
Mendoca was a wall this weekend, getting shutouts in both games.
Lancer D-man Carlo D’Emilio was content with his team’s performance.
“We played awesome,” commented D’Emilio.
“We were really focused, and we pulled another huge win. I’m confident in saying that we played solid on every aspects from the forwards back to the defence and goalkeeper.”
D’Emilio, who helped to make up the Lancers’ brick wall defensive squad, said that both victories came as a result of a practiced system that they put into play both games.
“It was the exact same game [as the one against McMaster], we outplayed them on every aspect of the game. Although we pretty much dominated the possession of the ball, it did take us a little long to finally get the goals. But we played really well, [Brock] never really held a constant attack.”
With these wins, the Lancers move to a number two spot on the OUA West ranks.
Coach Hart's Lancers will travel to Waterloo to battle the Warriors on Oct. 3, and then play the Laurier Golden Hawks on Oct. 4.
Both games are set for 3:15 p.m.
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