UNB men's soccer draw tie against Saint Mary's

UNB men's soccer draw tie against Saint Mary's

[Fredericton N.B.] The UNB Varsity Reds unable to hit the mark in a 0-0 draw against the Saint Mary's huskies, Sunday evening at BMO field at UNB.

The Varsity Reds came into the match with a losing record of 1-2-0 to take on the undefeated Huskies at 1-0-2.

Both defenses refused to budge through the first half of play. Though UNB controlled the majority of possession, they had a difficult time breaking the SMU defensive line that held the box well.

The efficiency of the Varsity Red's passing kept the pressure on the Huskies and set UNB up with two very close chances on goal. Defender William Kennedy (Dartmouth, NS) was forced to make some very athletic plays to bail out his keeper on the two UNB chances.

The Pressure to break the tie showed some back and forth rough tackles early on, through which a yellow card was given to Saint Mary's William Trifos (Halifax, NS).

UNB keeper Brandon Eagles (Edmonton, AB) was untested in the first half of the match as SMU failed to put a shot on goal.

Despite their best efforts, UNB was unable to bulge the back of the net out of the dressing room. The Varsity Red's best chance came half way through the second half with a hard strike from the eighteen, ringing off the crossbar. 

Pushing all the way to the final whistle, and despite a chaotic last minute drive, UNB was unable to break the dead lock and were forced to take their first draw of the season.

"One team is just determined to stack it up and they were successful with that," said Varsity Reds Head Coach Miles Pinsent. "I thought despite their tactics, we were able to break them down a couple times, the boys just didn't finish when they needed to."

UNB's keeper Brandon Eagle only faced one real challenge on goal today, and stay mostly untested though 90 minutes. 

 "I just tried to talk to the guys, just keep my head in it as much as possible, and just keep seeing the game," said Eagle "They defended very well as a team, and it looked like they had 11 men behind the ball at all times. We couldn't break through them—it's very disappointing especially after the win yesterday.” 

Both goalkeepers guarding a clean slate earn the Subway players of the match Brandon Eagles from UNB and Christian Oxner (Halifax, NS) from SMU.

 

The Varsity Reds hit the road to try to make it two wins Friday September 25th, for an evening match against the UPEI Panthers.