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Rumbling Royals

Mens soccer takes
Its fifth in a row

Eric
( Wilkins
x, Spot tr
I pati feshepeso
i

t was a tale of two halves for
the men’s soccer team when
they took to the field against the
visiting Kwantlen Eagles on the
afternoon of October 5. With the

sun making a rare appearance,
the Royals ultimately walked off
the pitch with a 3-0 victory.

“We came out very slow
the first 45... the boys know a
lot of those players at Kwantlen
and J think they took them very
lightly. We prepared all week to
play a low-pressure team and I
think our boys just thought they
were going to hand the game to
us,” said Paul Bahia, head coach.

While the edge in goal-
scoring opportunities in the first
half clearly went to Douglas,
neither team looked particularly
eager to take over the game. The
first real chance came just past
the half-hour mark when Dorian
Colopisis ripped a free kick off
the top of the crossbar from just
over half. Simrin Rattanpal and
Nicholas Espinosa then both
had chances in the box on a
corner kick, but both saw their

efforts stymied by the Kwantlen
defence. The only other action
of the half was a yellow card
shown to Douglas’ Haedan
Turner for a hard tackle.

The second half saw a
chance early on, with Rattanpal
firing from close range, though
the Kwantlen keeper was having
none of it. The Eagles fired a
long free kick at the Royals’

goal before the half was 10
minutes old, but Marc Mincieli
was ready and waiting despite
the lack of action he’d faced so
far. Shortly after, Douglas’ Sahil
Sandhu appeared to run onto
the ball for a one-on-one with
the keeper, but the referee blew
the play dead on an iffy offside
call. Kwantlen then saw several
quality chances wasted, with

 

Photo courtesy of Julia Haveling

three efforts flying harmlessly
wide or over the goal. Then,
about 20 minutes into the half,
the Royals’ Tanveer Minhas
received a yellow card after a
tightly contested tackle. The
goalless deadlock was finally
broken when Shahbaz Khattra
broke through the defence and
blasted a shot at the Kwantlen
goal; the keeper got a piece, but

 

it wasn’t enough. Minutes later,
Sandhu added to the Royals’
lead with a lovely touch by

the goalie. The sun was clearly
bothering the Eagles’ keeper

at this point as several balls
were unconvincingly palmed
away instead of caught for the
rest of the game. Kwantlen
tried to come back—their best
opportunity off a corner kick—
but Mincieli was up to the task.
Khattra slotted home his second
of the game into the bottom-left
corner about five minutes from
time to put the Royals up 3-0,
and that was how the game
finished.

“We should have had better
intensity in the first half and
tried to get at them a bit quicker,
but we got the result,” said
Colopisis on the game, before
laughing about his long-range
effort. “It’s supposed to goa
little bit lower, but it was pretty
close.”

On the team’s change from
the start of the year, Bahia
commented, “We're finding
ourselves. We've been playing
around with a few systems...
we've got guys like Sahil
[Sandhu] back in the line-up...
we're just more of a complete
team. It’s coming together at
the right time. We knew it was
going to be rough start; we have
over 10 rookies on our team.”

 

Royals fall prey to Eagles

Womens soccer
drops a Close one

Enc
( Wilkins
5 Sports Editor

t was another unfortunate

afternoon for the women’s
soccer team on Saturday
October 5, as they fell 2-0 against
the visiting Kwantlen Eagles at
Cunnings Field.

“It’s a broken record...
they didn’t bring the fire in the
first half. They brought it in the
second half. But you need a full
90 minutes of fire if you’re going
to perform and win,” said Ivan
Estrada, assistant coach.
The Royals started the game

a bit slowly, with Kwantlen
seeing a few chances early
on. Fortunately for Douglas,
keeper Ashley Dunn was up
for the challenge, saving a
free kick from 20 yards out,

20

before watching a series of
opportunities finish wide or
over the net. Angela Carotenuto
had a shot for Douglas shortly
fore the half-hour mark, but
w her effort denied by the
eper. A minute later, while
inn had been able to shut out
iy opposing strikers, she was
unable to prevent a goal when
a Kwantlen free kick took an
unlucky deflection off a Royals’
head. The Kwantlen surge
continued afew minutes later,
when the referee signalled for
a penalty kick after a tight foul
in the box. Dunn came up with
a magnificent save on the shot
though, diving to her left. After
some more defending from the
Royals, including a breakaway
Dunn raced out for, the teams
headed into half with Kwantlen
up 1-0.

During the break, Danika
Gill started warming up in the
Royals’ net after Dunn was
forced to the sidelines with her
right arm in a sling. It wasn’t the
only change for the home team,

as they came out a completely
different squad—dominating
the Eagles. Almost immediately,
Hayley Melvin sent a dangerous
cross in, but Lindsay Munroe
just missed getting on the end
of it. About 10 minutes into the
half, Tiffany O’Krane curled

a free kick into the top of the
box, but the header from Marni
McMillan was dealt with by the
Kwantlen keeper. Gill showed
she was an able replacement for
Dunn minutes later, when she
came up with her first save of
the game, stuffing a Kwantlen
attempt from the right. Miyoko
McKeown unleashed a long
shot shortly after, forcing a
diving save from the keeper,
and Munroe’s attempt off the
rebound was blocked for a
corner kick. Kwantlen had a
rare chance in the 62nd minute
on a free kick, but the shot
merely bounced off the inside
of the post before being cleared.
Douglas had another prime
chance when Melvin connected
with Munroe; unfortunately,

the resulting scramble in the
box was quickly blown dead
by the referee when the keeper
appeared to grab possession.
Against the flow of play,
Kwantlen went up 2-0 after a
gorgeous free kick about 10
minutes from time sailed into
the top left of the Douglas net.
The Eagles held off the Royals
for the rest of the game to seal
the victory.

“There was a mix of
emotions coming into the
game... I think ] was more
excited to prove myself
than anything else though,”
commented O’Krane, a former
Eagle. “We were slow coming
out of the gates but we definitely
picked it up in the second half.”

“It was a tough one. Pretty
unlucky break for their first
goal,” remarked Codie Harkins
before sharing her thoughts on
the rest of the season. “We're
just going to keep working
our best to get the ball in the
back of the net... keep working
forward.”

With the team’s hopes of
playoffs virtually over at 0-9
heading into Sunday’s game,
Estrada was asked about
possibly experimenting over
the remaining weeks: “] think
we will, but at the same time,
you shouldn’t give up on what
you've been working on because
then you don’t really develop
players. And the whole purpose
of this program is to develop
players. Yes you want to win
ultimately but you also want to
improve the athletes.”

Player of the
Game:
Angela

(arotenuto

(#19)