Lady Lakers capitalize – get road point

OTTAWA - The Nipissing Lakers soccer teams hit the road to the nations capital to face some strong competition in the Carleton Ravens and Ottawa Gee-Gees.

The Lady Lakers earned a hard fought road point against the Ravens with a 1-1 draw. The Lady Lakers did start the game off slowly and head coach Vito Castiglione attributed this to playing on turf.

“Playing on turf makes for a much faster game," he said.

"It took our team some time to adjust to the speed but we started getting into a rhythm by the midpoint of the first half.”

The two teams were scoreless at the half until midfielder Amy Laidlaw converted on a penalty kick as the Lakers Nadia Pagliarello was fouled in the 18 yard box. The game seemed to open up at this point as both teams created scoring opportunities and Lakers keeper Sam Behm continued her strong play.

Carleton was awarded a penalty kick in the 63 minute on a hand ball by one of the Lakers defenders inside the 18 yard box. Shayla Lavecchia made no mistake scoring her first goal of the season equaling the contest 1-1.

“Our defense played very well and we were backstopped by some great goaltending,” added Castiglione. “If it weren’t for a few questionable calls we should have walked away with three points.”

Sunday the Lady Lakers came out flat and the Gee-Gees played perhaps their best game of the season. Ottawa’s Josie DeJesus was the offensive spark for Ottawa as she put in two quick goals to put her team up 2-0 up the half. Behm was outstanding once again making some great saves to keep the Lakers in the game.

In the second half the Lakers managed to cut the deficit in half when Leesa Church headed in her seventh goal of the season. The Lakers were back in the game but not for long as two minutes later the Gee-Gees Courtney Luscombe responded with a goal of her own. Ottawa put the game out of reach when Katie Lugg scored in the 74th minute to close the contest at 4-1 for Ottawa.

Laker Men fall to Ravens

On the men’s side the Lakers took on the 4th ranked team in the country the Carleton Ravens in their lone contest of the weekend and dropped a 6-1 decision.

The first 30 minutes of the match were scoreless and saw possession shared evenly between the clubs. Carleton’s Andrew Park and Nicholas Perichino scored two goals in three minutes before the Lakers Ivan Lulic responded for Nipissing.

The second half was simply dominated by Carleton who scored 4 unanswered goals.

Head coach Tony D’Agostino was obviously disappointed with the result and stated that his side must simply eliminate errors and avoid playing in certain areas of the field when it is not necessary to do so.

“They (Carleton) scored 5 of 6 goals within the 6 yard box and it that is simply inexcusable," added D’Agostino.

“Certain players need to step up and contribute.”

D'Agostino went on to add that he expects to get back to basics this week in training as the Lakers prepare to host the University of Toronto and Ryerson University this weekend. D‘Agostino added that gaining points this weekend are absolutely crucial in order to keep the teams playoff hopes alive.

Submitted to BayToday.ca