Although they remain winless, a wild ending gives Concordia their fourth tie of the season.
The Concordia Stingers men’s soccer team was still looking for their first win of the season when they hosted Université de Montréal on Friday, Sept. 26. After three draws and two losses to open the season, the Stingers still can’t catch a break. Once again, Concordia played hard to earn a 1-1 draw against the Carabins.
The game got off to strong start for both teams as each team had chances in the early stages. Good opportunities on net were met by even better goaltending and stiff defense. Although it was an up-and-down first half, neither team could finish their attacks and both squads went into the halftime without a goal.
The second half started with a relentless Carabins attack. Looking to get the first goal of the game, the Carabins were determined to get through Concordia’s defense. Luckily for the Stingers, goaltender Wes Aucoin stood in the way and made some incredible saves to keep the score tied at 0-0.
Ten minutes into the second half, the Carabins finally got on the board when Maxime Laurey set up his fellow midfielder, Adama Sissoko, who beat Aucoin to open the scoring and give the Carabins a 1-0 lead.
The Stingers pushed hard to equal the score as they dominated possession and got multiple shots on net. It looked as if Concordia was on their way to their third loss of the season. Late in the game the Stingers looked down and out, but their tenacity eventually paid off.
In extra time, to the dismay of the Carabins players and coaches, the Stingers were given a free kick just outside the box. Stingers defenseman Stephen Meterissian stepped up and delivered a kick that sent the ball sailing into the net after being deflected by one the Carabins’ defenseman. After the ensuing kickoff, the referee signaled the end of the game, and that’s when things turned ugly.
Carabins players, coaches, and even parents came onto the field to protest the call of the goal, arguing that there was interference with the goalkeeper as the ball went into the back of the net.
Stingers goalkeeper coach Nicholas Giannone had to step in to stop a fight between the Carabins coach and the referee.
“I think it was a crazy match honestly, it was good for the fans and we’re actually happy with the point but it shows there is a lot of work to be done and we just didn’t capitalize on our chances,” said Giannone.
After his last-minute goal, Meterissian was relieved that something finally went their way.
“It felt good to get that goal late in the game. Our issue was [that] we couldn’t score on our chances but I liked how we kept the pressure and we kept pushing and creating offense,” Meterissian said.
Hopefully, this is a sign of good things to come as the Stingers head into the second half of the season.
