Men's soccer Tigers drop home opener

by Troy Langstaff

In the lone match between the two squads this season, the University of New Brunswick (UNB) Reds men's soccer team spoiled Dalhousie's home opener on Saturday afternoon with a 1-0 victory in front of 250 fans at Wickwire Field.  

The first 18 minutes of the match saw six corner kicks with lots of back and forth faced paced action between the two teams. 

The first real chance of the game, noted by a large "OOH" from the crowd was in the 21' minute after UNB's Mathew Quigley (Chester Basin, NS) crossed a pass into the goal area that was tipped by Tigers goalkeeper Aiden Rushenas (Toronto, ON). The ball continued through the area with no Reds players in the vicinity able to tap it into the goal.  

Rushenas was tested early and often with corner kick after corner kick but kept the Tigers in the game with some nice saves aided by some timely clears by Tigers defenders. He would make six total saves in the match. 

In the 37' minute Dalhousie controlled the ball into the UNB 18-yard box with some fancy footwork by Matthew Larter (Waverley, NS). The Tigers made some accurate passes but ultimately could not find a lane for a clear shot.  

A few minutes later in the 39' Ayoub Al-Arabi (Halifax, NS) forced a turnover and kicked the ball ahead beating the defender in a foot race but was barely beaten to the ball by charging Reds' goalkeeper Louis-Charles Vaillancourt (Sherbrooke, QC). 

Neither team could solve the goalkeepers by the half. 

The first 15 minutes of the second half saw UNB dictating most of the play but in the 60' minute the Tigers Jacob Bolton (Halifax, NS) found Al-Arabi in the box with a high pass but by the time the ball was controlled the Reds were able to cancel any scoring chance for Dalhousie.  

In the 70' minute the Tigers were defending a strong push by the Reds when a blocked shot inside the box made contact with a Dalhousie players' hand resulting in a penalty kick for UNB. Fifth-year Tom Pheulpin (San Antonio, TX) stepped up to the spot for the Reds and fired one into the bottom left corner to break the deadlock.  

The 78' minute saw the Reds pressing once again but a gorgeous stop by Rushenas on Keji Adeniyi (Mansfield, UK) seemed to spark the Tigers offence.  

The majority of the last 10 minutes of play was spent in the UNB half with Dalhousie pressuring for an equalizer.  

A handful of corners, crosses and through balls in the dying minutes of play gave the Tigers ample opportunities to tie the match with the best of them all coming in stoppage time when Gracious Kasheke (Halifax, NS) crossed one into the box for a leaping Chris Pike (Thunder Bay, ON) who headed the ball just wide. 

UNB survived the heavy push by the Tigers taking the season opener by a score of 1-0. 

Pheulpin earned Subway Player of the game honours for UNB. 

The Reds' next match sees them take on Acadia tomorrow at 3:15pm. 

Dalhousie will look to get into the win column on Thursday when they visit St. Mary's. Kick-off goes at 7:15pm.