ANTIGONISH, NS - The U SPORTS No. 9 ranked STFX X-Men soccer team won their final home game of the season with a 3-1 victory over the Memorial Sea-Hawks Sunday afternoon. It was the seventh win on the year for the X-Men, who have clinched a spot in the AUS playoffs.
The X-Men struck first in the fifth minute, with Samuel Barrowcliffe (Princeton, ON) picking up the ball in the Memorial end, initiating a give and go with Kyle Cordeiro (Oakville, ON), before passing off to Logan Rieck (Cambridge, ON) who fired one low to the far side of the net for his fifth goal of the season.
STFX added another late in the half, with Jack Kennedy (Antigonish, NS) collecting the ball in the Memorial end before passing off to Dyan Vil (Ottawa, ON), who hit a flat pass into the box to Barrowcliffe, for a one-touch goal. The Sea-Hawks produced a few chances late in the half, but STFX goaltender Samuel Diltz (Newmarket, ON) came up big with a couple of saves.
It was a spicy first half, with some heavy challenges, and three yellow cards going out in total, two to Memorial and one to STFX. The score remained 2-0 at the end of the first 45 minutes in favor of the home team.
About 12 minutes into the second half, Memorial's Gabriel Araujo Lage (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) cut the STFX lead in half, heading home a rebound off the crossbar from a shot by Jacob Grant (St. John's, NL) from distance. Six minutes later though, Cordeiro got his foot to a long throw from Blake Fenton (Halifax, NS), and chipped one over the Memorial keeper for the fourth and final score of the match.
Louis-Charles Vaillancourt (Sherbrooke, QC) and Robert Hodge (St. Lawrence, NL) split time in the Sea-Hawks net, making a combined four saves. Diltz had a busy afternoon for STFX, making six saves in the game. Player of the game for Memorial was Harry Carter (St. John's, NL), while Cordeiro was named player of the game for STFX.
The Sea-Hawks host the Acadia Axemen next weekend, with games on October 20 and 21, both at 7:15 p.m. The X-Men are on the road next weekend, taking on Moncton on October 20 at 7:15 p.m., and UNB on October 21, at 5:15 p.m., to close out regular season action.
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Recap courtesy Matt Draper, STFX Athletics
Graduating X-Men were recognized pre-game (L to R) Student Therapist Talia Deliman, Coach Kennedy, Lewis Dye, Will Veinot, Blake Fenton, Jack Kenendy, Oliver Storseth