Saint Mary's upsets top-seed X-Men to move on to AUS championship match
Sydney, N.S. – With a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over the top-seed STFX X-Men on Friday afternoon, the Saint Mary's Huskies punched their ticket to this weekend's championship match at the 2021 Subway AUS Men's Soccer Championships.
"It is so awesome – what a great feeling," Subway player of the game Woody Bain (Dartmouth, N.S.) said of his Huskies' victory.
In the 74th minute, he scored the second Saint Mary's goal, which turned out to be the game-winner, off a free kick. Bain curled a left-footed shot into the top left corner beyond the reach of conference first-team all-star goaltender Seamus MacDonald (Antigonish, N.S.).
"We knew it would be tough, especially playing such a great team," Bain said of the challenge they faced against the X-Men, particularly after going up against the UPEI Panthers the day before in a hard-fought quarterfinal match.
In a physical first half, Abdoulaye Barry (Conakry, Africa) garnered the initial prime scoring opportunity, but MacDonald dove to his right to make the stop.
The best scoring chance for the X-Men came in injury time, when a Cameron Shaw (Ottawa, ON) free kick found the head of Kyle Cordeiro (Ottawa, ON) before Nick Aquino (Dartmouth, N.S.) and Josh Read (Bath, England) got touches in the 18-yard box, but they were unable to bury it behind Saint Mary's goalkeeper Jensen Brown (Enfield, N.S.)
In the second half, the X-Men opened the scoring in the 50th minute, when Cordeiro found Carson Ripoll (New Glasgow, N.S.) on a two-on-one, with the veteran midfielder punching the ball into the gaping cage.
Only 50 seconds later, the Huskies knotted the contest 1-1 when Barry rifled a blast behind MacDonald, finishing off a nifty four-way passing sequence started by a quality through ball from Sumit Malik (Halifax, N.S.).
Looking for the tying goal, Logan Harrington (Halifax, N.S.) made a strong run before making the cross to freshman Cameron Shaw (Ottawa, ON), whose shot sailed high and wide.
In the 85th minute, Aquino sent Ziad Abdelrahman (Toronto, ON) in alone, but Brown came sliding out before he could get a shot away.
With the victory, the Huskies will play either the UNB Reds or CBU Capers for the AUS banner on Sunday, Nov. 7 – at 4 p.m. AST.
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Courtesy Corey LeBlanc