Carabins 6, Stingers 2: Nightmare first half sinks men’s soccer team
Four goals in 10 minutes spoils season opener.
“We were really rusty, but defensively, we sucked,” said Stingers captain Sean Holmes. “It’s nice to be back but there’s lots of work to do.”
For the first game in nearly two years, Concordia Stadium was packed Friday night as the Stingers faced off against rivals Université de Montréal Carabins. This was the first matchup since their 1-1 draw on Oct. 18, 2019.
Of the seven points that Carabins team—a team that made the National Championship game last season—dropped, Concordia was responsible for four of them.
“Our mindset going in [was the biggest difference]. We lost a lot of individual battles—me specifically—and I just don’t think we were good enough to compete tonight,” added Holmes. “We should have been in this game [...] but it’s a learning curve.”
The difference that two years off makes could not have been more evident than in the first half. After a solid back and forth for the first 20 minutes, a defensive blunder gave Guy-Frank Essomé Penda a free goal inside the six-yard box. Not to be outdone, Alberto Correa smashed home an astounding equalizer from 20 yards out only five minutes later.
That was the closest Concordia got as les Carabins spent the next 10 minutes putting four goals past goalkeeper Julian Petrilli, who was often left out to dry.
Les Carabins refused to let up, dominating every square inch of turf both physically and technically, leaving no room for Concordia forwards to break through and using it to relaunch wave after wave of attacks.
The men’s team—much like their female counterpart—has a slew of young recruits entering their first season as a Stinger and this served as a rude awakening for a lot of them.
“This is one of those games you learn from and then immediately put it in the rear-view mirror,” said head coach Greg Sutton. “It’s a baptism by fire to a certain extent so we just have to make sure they learn as soon as possible.”
This is a tough result for a team who only last season saw themselves go toe-to-toe with the best teams in the country and regularly compete. Not to mention the fact that they ended up with their best result since Sutton took over in the 2003 season.
“Playoffs are still the expectation and that’s the minimum for this year. We want to push for nationals,” said Holmes. “I think we’re a lot better than 6-2 shows.”
Concordia gets ready to face The Carleton Ravens in an exhibition game this Sunday before looking to get their first points on Friday, Sept. 17 at Concordia Stadium against the Université Laval Rouge et Or.
