The St. Thomas University men’s soccer team had an important week of home games, with only one more weekend of games left before playoffs. With the Tommies on the outside looking in with regards to the playoff picture, they had to make every game count.
The Tommies started out their week Wednesday night where they were matched up against the Crandall Chargers. They lost that matchup 2-1 with Tommie Emmanuel Nizeyumana scoring the only STU goal off of an assist from Daniel Steeves.
STU’s next game came against the University of King’s College Blue Devils. At about 23 minutes into the game, STU opened up the scoring with a goal from Steeves. The Blue Devils responded 15 minutes later to tie up the game at 1-1 which is where the score would stay until halftime.
In the second half, Tommie Xavier Ponce took a shot on net which was helped in by Josh Drennan. The Tommies held a 2-1 lead for most of the second half, but the Blue Devils didn’t go away. With only a few minutes left in the game, King’s College scored the equalizer, tying the game up two apiece.
Tommies head coach Darren Cann wasn’t satisfied with the final result.
“It was a big game for us. After coming off the back of two defeats we had to get something from the game today,” said Cann. “The win is what we wanted, but we couldn’t get it.”
The Tommies had lots of shots on net which could have put them up, but they just weren’t able to find the back of the net.
“We should have won the game by a lot more than that with the chances we had,” said Cann.
Their next game came Sunday against Mount Saint Vincent University. The two teams played even for the first half, but at the start of the second, the Mount Saint Vincent Mystics found the back of the net to take a one goal lead. The Tommies didn’t hang their heads there, as Steeves was able to get the tying goal for the Tommies. Just a few minutes later, the Mystics answered back with a goal of their own, then in the final minutes got another goal to make 3-1. That would end up being the final score.
“It’s hard,” said Cann. “We score a goal, we’re back in the game, then we just press a self-destruct button.”
Despite the tough weekend, Cann still gives his team a lot of credit.
“They’re playing hurt. They’re carrying injuries. Some of them are sick. They gave 110 per cent and at the end of the day we just weren’t good enough,” said Cann.
The Tommies are fifth in the ACAA, just two points from the fourth and final playoff spot, currently held by Crandall. STU will need to win one of their last two road games, but those won’t come until after the Thanksgiving weekend break. Cann is thankful for the break as it will give his team time to recover.
Steeves thinks that the teams focus needs to improve if they are to make some noise going forward.
“We can’t win games playing 60 minutes. We got to stay glued together for 90 minutes,” said Steeves.
