Fireworks on display as Redmen soccer squad smothers Stingers in season opener

Mehdi Ibn-Brahim (PHOTO: Derek Drummond)

Box Score

MONTREAL -- Five different players scored as McGill crushed Concordia convincingly with a 5-2 outburst in their RSEQ men' soccer season opener before 467 fans at Percival Molson Stadium, Saturday.

It was a complete reversal of last year's season opener, when McGill was embarrassed 4-0 on Concordia's turf of Sept. 11, 2015. The five goals by the Redmen was the most since a 5-0 home-field decision over Sherbrooke on Sept. 13, 2015.

The Redmen -- who are supposed to be in a rebuilding phase with 16 players either in their first or second year -- scored twice in the first half and took a stunning 5-0 lead with three markers in an eight-minute span early in the second half.

McGill held a 13-8 edge in shots attempted, including a 9-5 advantage on net. The frustrated Stingers were assessed five of the six yellow cards handed out by the referee.

Defender Justin Dragan, a mechanical engineering junior from Ottawa, used his forehead to convert a pass from rookie Ramdane Tafer to open the scoring in the 29th minute. Three minutes later,Julien Marlatt, a senior midfielder from San Francisco, also connected on a header.

After the intermission, Marlatt set up Mehdi Ibn-Brahim, a prize recruit out of College Ahuntsic, to make it 3-0 in the 55th minute and the rout was on.. Two minutes later, senior Mohamed Kleit of Outremont, Que., tallied followed by newcomer Pierre Lepage, an NCAA transfer from Shorter University in Georgia, who upped the count to 5-0 in the 63rd minute.

Stingers captain Gabriel Quinn finally broke the goose-egg when he was awarded a penalty kick in the 67th minute. Teammate Justin Gibson closed out the scoring in the 73rd minute.

McGill 'keeper Antoine Marchal, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound freshman from Montreal, made three saves to register his first career league victory. Stingers' sophomore Karl Gouabe was beaten five times on nine shots for the loss.

Concordia (0-1-0) will have a week to regroup and get ready to host the Montreal Carabins (0-0-1) next Friday.

McGill (1-0) will host the Piranhas from École de technologie supérieure in a non-conference game at Molson Stadium, Friday, Sept. 9 at 8:15 p.m., following the women's contest against Bishop's at 6 p.m. ETS is a start-up team that used to be in the RSEQ conference but dropped out after the 2004 season.

(NOTE: LINK TO BOXSCORE ABOVE; COMPLETE STATS POSTED BELOW)

SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
McGill Sports Info Office
514-398-7012

SoccerMeter for iPad Game Data

McGill	Game Total	Concordia
5	Goals	2
9	Shots On Goal	5
4	Missed Shot Attempts	3
69	% Shot Attempts On Goal	63
39	% Shot Attempts Scored	25
49:50	Time of Possession	40:10
55%	Time of Possession %	45%
556	First Touches	437
10.1	Average Time of a Possession (sec)	8.3
346	Passes	226
62%	Pass Completion %	52%
55	Number of Pass Strings	30
4.4	Average Pass String Length	4.0
9	Longest Pass String	8
2	Corner Kicks	3
12	Fouls Committed	10
3	Goalkeeper Saves	4
60	Goalkeeper Save %	44

Scoring Summary

McGill 5	Concordia 2
29' Justin Dragan (Ramdane Tafer) 32' Julien Marlatt (Valentine Radevich) 55' Mehdi Ibn-Brahim (Julien Marlett) 57' Mohamed Kleit (Ramdane Tafer) 63' Pierre Lepage (unassisted)	67' 7 Gabriel Quinn (penalty kick) 73' 13 Justin Gibson (unassisted)

Cards

McGill	Concordia
17' Valentin Radevich (Yellow)	17' 6 Elias Bartuscki (Yellow) 29' 10 Jose Prida (Yellow) 49' 9 Mitchell O'Brien (Yellow) 56' 17 Jergen Ulloa-Aguilar (Yellow) 90' 23 Nicholas Simundic (Yellow)