Stingers left red-faced in loss to McGill

In soccer it’s rare to see more than a handful of goals, so after the Concordia Stingers lost 8-0 to the McGill Redmen on Sunday, you know something went very, very wrong.

It was clear from the first minute of play that things would not go well for the Stingers. They looked shaky as they missed tackles and struggled to keep up with their opponents. Then a little more than four minutes into the match the McGill squad got one up on the Stingers when Alec Milne rifled one past Concordia keeper Steve McAuley to make it 1-0.

If the first goal came as a bit of a surprise, the second had little to do with luck. The home yellow looked flustered as the game turned a bit rough, and several penalties went uncalled. After a calculated rush by the more experienced Redmen the Stingers’ frustration took shape and Jamie Scholefield was hauled down in front of the net. The result was predictable: a penalty shot and an easy goal. Tom Rigby added another goal for the Redmen before the end of the first half to make the score 3-0.

Despite the unlucky turn of events, the Stingers started the second half with the hope that they could turn the game around, or at least make things a bit interesting. But tight checking and accurate passing by McGill made that hope unlikely. The red jerseys forced their way patiently up the field. Less than five minutes into the second half Juan Zavagno received a loose ball 50 feet out and hesitated. Concordia’s Steve McAuley came out of his net and challenged the shooter. Then Zavagno lobbed the ball high into the air, and McCauley didn’t even try to turn around to stop it. The ball bounced once, then dribbled into the net while the Stingers watched helplessly.

It was the goal that broke the team’s back. After that, the men in yellow rarely challenged for possession until the play moved deep into their defensive territory.

With 20 minutes left in the game, two Redmen broke into scoring territory and Elias Gedamu took a quick shot. McCauley leapt dramatically and saved the shot only to have Gedamu pounce on the rebound. That made it 5-0.

The last 15 minutes saw 3 more goals for the Redmen including Zavagno’s second marker of the game.

After the game, Stingers coach Vladmir Pavlicik was more than disappointed with his team’s play and sees much room for improvement.

“We had a lot of new players out there today, and I don’t think they knew what kind of level of competition this is. There are changes to be made obviously, and a lot of work.”

Assistant coach and last year’s captain Francois Bastien was looking forward to the Stingers next game.

“We’ll take this loss at face value. We’ll judge this loss by the way we come out in our next game.”

The Stingers now go on a twogame road trip when they play in Sherbrooke and in Trois Rivieres this week against the Vert et Or and Patriotes. The next home game is Sunday Sept. 25 at Concordia Field, when they play the Carabins from the University of Montreal.

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