By: Victor Gouchee
The Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) men’s soccer action continued on Thursday, October 12 on Burnaby Mountain as the Clan hosted the Concordia Cavaliers. The visitors are the only team to have beaten SFU this season, and dropped SFU from No. 2 to No. 22 in the nation. The first contest, held in Portland two weeks ago, saw the Cavaliers open the scoring early and eventually hold on for a 3–2 victory.
Thursday was a different story, as the Clan dominated from start to finish. SFU came out firing with four corner kicks in the opening 10 minutes alone. There was a couple of lineup changes to SFU as freshman forward Matteo Polisi was dropped to the bench and Riley Pang, the reigning GNAC freshman of the year, started in his place up front. Additionally, defender Pascal Schmidt returned to the starting 11 after serving his two-match suspension, and midfielder/defender Brendan Shaw sat out Thursday’s contest due to injury.
Having several corner kicks early seemed to be a bit of a game plan created by SFU as the addition of Pang added another target for crosses into the box. Several strong chances were created, but the Clan were unable to convert early on. Junior forward Mamadi Camara had several chances but found many of his attempts blocked by the Cavaliers defenders and goalkeeper.
Matteo Polisi would come into the contest in the first half and have an almost immediate impact. With one of his first touches of the game, Polisi rose up and met a beautifully whipped-in corner kick by Kyle Jones to put the Clan up 1–0 before the half-hour mark.
The scoreline would stay like that until the halftime whistle, which is a generous scoreline for Concordia. The Clan put eight shots towards the Cavaliers goal, while Miguel Hof, goalkeeper for SFU, did not have a single shot come his way. Concordia was also forced to defend twelve SFU corner kicks in the first half alone, while only having one corner kick themselves
The second half saw SFU start right from where they left off, dominating play from start to finish. The Clan came out looking more calm in possession and created less chances in the opening minutes of the second half, but would eventually add to their lead in quick succession. A corner kick whipped in by Adam Jones in the 64th minute saw Riley Pang rise and flick the ball onto a sliding Schmidt to double the Clan’s lead. Just three minutes later, Matteo Polisi blew by the defender and crossed in a delightful ball to a sliding Pang to copy Schmidt’s goal minutes before.
The night would end 3–0 for SFU, which keeps them tied for second place in the GNAC.
SFU has a big contest on Saturday in Bellingham, Washington against the GNAC-leading Western Washington Vikings. With a Clan victory, the race for the conference championship would be blown wide open. If the Vikings come out with the victory, they would put themselves in a great position to win the conference.
