REDS Advance To AUS Championship Game
(FREDERICTON, NB) For the second day in a row, the No. 6 ranked UNB REDS upset a higher seeded opponent to advance at the Atlantic University Sport men's soccer championship, presented by Bell, at UNB's BMO Centre, in Fredericton.
The REDS beat the No. 2 seed Memorial Sea-Hawks 3-2.
"It's been a long time coming," said REDS' captain Olivier Menard. "I'm just so proud of this group of boys, the resilience that we've had this season and three years in a row of getting out at this stage, this game, and now finally getting through that hurdle, it's just such a good feeling."
The Sea-Hawks were first on the scoreboard.
In just the sixth minute, Jacob Grant (St. John's, NL) fired a shot from behind a group of players that eluded REDS' keeper Mahmoud Moustafa (Stratford, PE).
In the 31st minute, UNB's Luke Rosettani (Ottawa, ON) was awarded a free kick in the Sea-Hawks zone. He struck a low shot past Memorial keeper Louis-Charles Vaillancourt (Sherbrooke, QC) and into the bottom corner of the net.
Ten minutes later, Rosettani put another free kick into the box where Ehab Moustafa (Stratford, PE) headed it past Vaillancourt to put the REDS up 2-1.
UNB went up 3-1 in the 59th minute
This time it was Moustafa driving a ball on Vaillancourt, who made the save but gave up a rebound right on to the head of Harrison McGinn (Jewett's Mills, NB), who tipped the ball into a wide-open Memorial net.
"The whole season I've been disappointed in myself because I haven't been showing up and then I just knew I had to lock in for playoffs," said Ehab Moustafa. "I just knew this was my moment to prove myself."
The Sea-Hawks cut the UNB lead to 3-2 in the 74th minute when Grant struck a penalty past the UNB keeper.
The REDS finished the AUS regular season in sixth place with a record of 4-4-4 (W-L-T), while the Sea-Hawks went 7-4-1.
In their two regular season matches, in St. John's, Memorial won one and the teams tied the other.
The REDS will now face the top seeded STFX X-Men in Sunday's AUS championship game. Kick-off is scheduled for 4:00pm.
"We knew we were good," said Moustafa. "We knew we deserved to be here. We all wanted it."
"The trust that we have for one another," said Menard. "We've shown we can beat any team and that boosts our confidence."
Regardless of the outcome on Sunday, both UNB and the X-Men will represent the AUS at the U SPORTS men's soccer championship. That takes place November 7-10, at Ontario Tech University, in Oshawa, Ontario.
RECAP BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics
PHOTOS BY: James West/for UNB Athletics