Dismal Soccer Season Ends

Stingers Close Out Year With Tough Loss to McGill

SportsKevin Duarte — Published November 1, 2011

The Stingers started off strong, only to have the opposition get the best of them in the second half.

This didn’t sit well with Stingers assistant coach François Bastien. “We’re a hair [away from] victory, and this has been the story since the beginning of the season unfortunately.”

The Stingers started making some noise 15 minutes in, when midfielder Karim Haroun hit a free kick which ended up striking the crossbar.

Not long after, striker Alfred Moody forced Redmen goalkeeper Charles Kelly into an amazing diving save to keep the match scoreless.

The rivalry intensified during the remainder of the half. Both sides started committing fouls, which led to a confrontation between Stingers defender Stephen Meterissian and McGill forward Axel Dovi. Both players were fortunate to have not gotten booked for their altercation.

Just before half time, ConU got lucky on a Redmen foul. This led to Moody heading the ball into the net off of a free kick from midfielder Shady Shalaby.

The first-half effort pleased Bastien. “They did well, they fought,” he said.

The Maroon and Gold began the second half where they left off. Six minutes in, Stingers forward Eduardo Mazzonna had a chance to double the lead, but was not able to convert his breakaway opportunity.

The Stingers’ first-half momentum eventually wore off, though. In the 57th minute, the Stingers backline was unable to clear a McGill long ball, which led to forward Sebastian Munro burying the loose ball to tie things up at 1-1.

Soon afterward, strong Redmen pressure from the kick-off led to the eventual winning goal. McGill defender Alexis Pradie curled a shot to the bottom left corner to beat goalkeeper Nicholas Giannone.

Bastien blamed the loss on poor execution. “One of our weaknesses all year long is that we get scored on and we don’t react,” he said. “All of a sudden they score two quick goals and we’re out of the game.”

With the loss, Concordia finished the season in sixth place with 10 points—two points more than they managed last season.