Men’s Soccer: Stingers Fall Short Versus the Redmen

McGill Redmen take advantage of Stinger errors to win the game in the second half.

SportsVince Morello — Published September 30, 2014

The Stingers are now tied for last place in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec standings with the Sherbrooke Vert et Or and have yet to record a victory this season.

The Stingers players after the defeat, however, managed to remain upbeat.

“I think today we started off pretty fast and pretty well,” said defender Alexander Elali.

The Stingers opened the scoring with a goal from midfielder Nick Sisti in the 40th minute, but couldn’t hold on to their lead in the second half.

McGill Redmen forward Massimo Di Ioia replied with equalizer in the 68th minute before McGill took the lead for good off a corner kick in the 81st minute, when defender Patrick Fusarini headed the ball passed Stingers keeper Wes Aucoin.

The score suggested that the Redmen were the better team, but head coach Greg Sutton and his players disagreed.

“We just had two situations were we weren’t mentally switched on and one was a bad giveaway in a dangerous area [and] Massimo [Di Ioia] punished us for it.”

The second [goal] was poor marking in the box so it was two mistakes that cost us, you can’t have that when you’re in a position to win the game,” Sutton said.

“In the second half, I think we came out strong,” said Stingers midfielder Jose Prida. “We were a bit defensive early on in the half, and we were already tucked in but also they [McGill] were putting a lot of pressure on us.”

“At the second half we started better, but then at the end, we lost our focus, and we paid.”

“We gave heart, we did everything we had to do. At the end of the day we need to keep our momentum all the way to the end. If we don’t play to the end that’s what costs us games,” Elali said after the loss.

The Concordia Stingers play their next game on Friday, October 3rd at home versus the UQTR Patriotes at 6:30 p.m.