The Keyano Huskies Men’s Soccer team completed their six-point weekend in a strong fashion, defeating the visiting Concordia Thunder 3-0 Sunday afternoon at Shell Place in Fort McMurray, Alta.
“It’s a solid weekend of work and the results are there as well,” Head Coach Niels Slotboom said. “It’s nice to put in a good performance and get the reward of the three points in each game as well.”
The result was the 10th win and seventh shutout of Corbin Cyprien’s ACAC career, making him the second goalkeeper in the program’s history to record double-digit victories for their regular season career.
Whereas the Huskies struck in the opening minutes of Saturday’s win, it wasn’t until the 28th minute that they cracked the Thunder’s defence Sunday. Fighting for control of the ball, Hafid Arellano took a lead pass from Dino Hronopoulos, flicking it over to the box where Karl tronche was waiting to deposit his eighth career goal in a Huskies uniform.
“Concordia is a tough team,” Slotboom said of the quick turnaround from Saturday and challenge presented by the visiting Thunder. “They’re very physical and they’ve got some very good athletes and very skilled players as well. It’s definitely not a team that you can go and accept the fact that you’re up by a goal and go through the motions the rest of the way.
“They forced us to stay on and to make sure that we don’t drop off I think the guys did a really good job of that today.”
In the 62nd minute, William Ly doubled the lead as he took a pass from Mario Morote, who carved his way through the Thunder defence before sliding it over to the Montreal, Quebec product for his third goal of season.
“He’s starting to find the right areas of the field,” Slotboom said of Ly. “He can score from range like he did on Saturday and then positionally in the perfect spot here in today’s game to put it in the empty net after a great individual effort by one of our fullbacks.
“Mario did really well, cut through their lines, and Will read it perfectly.”
Rounding out the scoring in the 82nd minute, Aaron Ernst took a lead pass from Karl Tronche and fired it on net, catching the left arm of the goalkeeper but still finding enough momentum to continue into the net.
That would be all the scoring in the game as the Huskies put the finishing touches on the weekend sweep and their third-straight win.
With the third-longest winning streak in the entire conference at the moment, the Huskies have vaulted themselves into a playoff spot, part of a four-team logjam that sees first through fourth in the ACAC’s North Division separated by a mere three points.
The Huskies next matchup sees them head to Lac la Biche, Alta. To play the second half of their season series against the Portage College Voyageurs. Kick-off for the game on Friday, October 6 is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
