The Gryphons men's soccer team battled it out against the Lions this afternoon (Oct. 16) at the new Gryphons Soccer Complex and lost a frustrating match, 0-1.
 
The Gryphons drop to 8-4-2 while the Lions advance to 10-1-3 and maintain first place in the OUA West.
 
The Gryphons were well matched against the top seated Lions, playing aggressive on offence and defence, but were unable to find the back of the Lions net. Gryphons goal tender Chad Paparoni (Burlington, ON) stood on his head stopping numerous shots on net, but Carlos Nogueira (Brampton, ON) was able to sneak one past him 19 minutes into the first half.
 
The Gryphons trailed 0-1 after 45 minutes of play. 
 
Guelph began the second half looking confident. The Gryphons passed smarter, took advantage of the entire pitch and fought hard to create more goal scoring opportunities. The Lions back four proved to be hard to penetrate and although Mike Bijman (Brantford, ON) made crossing the ball look easy, Guelph's offence couldn't seem to get a foot on the ball and capitalize on the scoring opportunities.
 
With tensions running high on the field, both teams turned it up and locked horns more than once and several yellow cards were handed out. The game climaxed when Gryphon striker, Robbie Murphy (Ottawa, ON) went down and had to be carried off the field with what appeared to be an ankle injury.  
 
In a last ditch effort to tie the game, Guelph applied ample pressure on Lions defence and netminder, Sotiri Varlokostas (Toronto, ON) during the last minutes of play, but unfortunately the Gryphon offence came up short, and lost a frustrating game, 0-1.
 
The Gryphons are back in action next Saturday (Oct. 22) at 3:15 p.m. when they play host to the Lancers.