When George McDougall midfielder Matt Wagner hit the crossbar on a free kick, from about 50 yards out, he hoped it wouldn’t end up being his best chance of the game.
Thankfully for he and his Mustang teammates, it wasn’t.
Eight minutes later, George Mac midfielder Rahil Gillani was taken down inside the penalty area. Wagner stepped up and marked his first goal of the season – the eventual game-winner in the Mustangs 3-0 win over the Chestermere Lakers at Monkland Park, May 10.
“Usually, I look bottom left and you’ve got to take it when it’s there,” Wagner said. “It felt good and gave our team a boost. We got a lot of energy off of that.”
The win moves George Mac into sole possession of first place in the Rocky View Sports Association’s varsity boys’ soccer league. The team’s two early season wins, including last week’s 2-0 victory over the Springbank Phoenix, has given McDougall an important advantage during a truncated schedule, said Mustangs’ head coach Brian DeGiuseppe.
“It’s pretty important, as you want to finish in the top two seeds to have home field advantage (in the semi-finals),” he said. “We haven’t even really practiced a lot, but the kids are finding chemistry on their own. It’s been working well so far, with five goals for and zero against in two games. It’s been a pretty impressive start. Hopefully we can keep building on that.”
After a scoreless first half, which featured only a few chances for either team, Wagner’s free kick surprise in the 56th minute seemed to ignite the Mustangs. His penalty strike in the 64th put George Mac ahead, then, four minutes later, a Chestermere defender had a handball in the 18-yard box, giving him an automatic red card and giving the Mustangs another chance.
Striker Chris Sanchez buried a shot to the top left to put the team up 2-0. George Mac added an insurance goal in the 78th minute, when Travis Godard made a run down the left flank and crossed the ball into Tyler Shapka, who tapped it in.
“Penalties are usually unfortunate incidents,” DeGiuseppe said. “You put pressure on and guys end up doing silly things. Luckily, we got that third goal to show it wasn’t just penalties we can score on.”
“They have fast forwards that tired out our defence enough to get their opportunities near the end,” said Lakers’ head coach Tanya Everson. “When we dropped to 10 players, we seemed to control more of the play, but we needed that extra person to help.”
Chestermere tied Cochrane 1-1 in its first game and now sits in a three-way tie for third place in the RVSA standings. But Everson knows the team has left some points on the board and will need a better effort in its next game.
“It is pretty crucial at this point because there are only three more games left,” she said. “We need to get some points on the board, as there are only four teams that make the playoffs. Hopefully in the next couple games, we’ll get things together. We just need to communicate and stick to our style of game, rather than have the other team dictate what style of game we’re going to play.”
In other RVSA soccer action on May 10, Bert Church drew 1-1 with Springbank and Cochrane beat Bow Valley 1-0. On May 17, the Chargers will host the Lakers, the Mustangs will visit the Cobras and the Bobcats and Phoenix will face each other in Springbank.
