National medal game in Gryphon soccer men’s future
OTTAWA – The Guelph Gryphons will play for a medal Sunday at the U Sports national university men’s soccer championship tournament.
That was guaranteed Thursday when the OUA champion Gryphs slipped by the Atlantic silver medalist Saint Mary’s Huskies 2-0 in the tournament’s opening game, a quarterfinal at Ravens Perch on the Carleton University campus.
Guelph Gryphons 2 Saint Mary’s 0
The Gryphs scored once in each half for the victory.
Owen McKee scored the opener in the 37th minute when he put a rebound of a Jack Sears shot into the Saint Mary’s net.
Alexander Zis connected for the other goal 37 minutes of game time later to complete the scoring.
The Huskies were playing down a man when Zis scored as Kwaku Korankye had been sent off seven minutes earlier after he picked up his second yellow card of the game.
In all the Huskies were issued four yellow cards to one for the Gryphs.
Svyatoslav Artemenko had the clean sheet in net for the locals.
Guelph controlled the majority of the play throughout and outshot Saint Mary’s 8-1. The Gryphs were also whistled for 12 fouls, one more than the Huskies.
The Gryphs advance to face the Quebec champion Montreal Carabins in the first semifinal Saturday at 1 p.m. The other semifinal at 4:30 p.m. pits the Atlantic champion Cape Breton Capers against the host Carleton Ravens.
Saturday’s winners are to meet in the championship match Sunday at 2 p.m. while Saturday’s losers are to battle in the bronze-medal match Sunday at 11 a.m.
Thursday’s other games were all decided in penalty kicks as Montreal edged the Canada West silver medalist Victoria Vikes 2-1, Cape Breton nipped the Quebec silver medalist Laval Rouge et Or 3-2 and Carleton get by the Canada West champion UBC Thunderbirds 3-2.
Friday’s consolation semifinals have Saint Mary’s playing Victoria at 1:30 p.m. and Laval playing UBC at 4:30 p.m. Winners move on to the consolation final Saturday at 11 a.m. while the losers are eliminated.
- Guelph Sports Journal