By Dylan Matthias, Sports Editor
This time, they scored.
It took 87 minutes, though, for the Dalhousie Tigers to finish one of their many chances against the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds last Saturday at Wickwire field.
It was the last home game for a number of Tigers, including goal scorer Ross Hagen, who has played out five years of eligibility with the Tigers. Also graduating are Andrew Hutchison (striker), Chris Haughn (midfield), Nathan Beck (midfield), and possibly Andrew Dalziel (defense). Hussein Rajan will also graduate from his commerce program and has decided to move on.
The game was hardly highlight-filled.
“I’m really glad we won,” said Tigers head coach Pat Nearing, laughing. Dal carried possession but struggled mightily to finish anything. “I think we deserved to win that game … We left it to the end, fair enough, but we had enough chances to win the game.”
Tiger’s rookie Tyler Lewars continued his futility, although he again generated chance after chance. In the 17th minute, he broke in alone on UNB keeper Aaron McMurray and with 20 yards of space to manipulate, he shot straight into McMurray’s legs.
Dal did create chances, though. J.P. Rodriguez tested McMurray in the 31st and Ross Hagen curled a strong shot around the post in the 33rd minute. Lewars also missed on a decent volley opportunity in the 51st.
“We just have to wait,” said Nearing. “Sometimes you plant a seed and it takes a while to sprout.”
Nearing’s zen soccer development aphorisms aside, this team needs to start scoring goals.
The second half featured some more ugly soccer on a weekend that saw plenty. While UNB were no St. FX in their dirtiness, Ben Law lunged studs up into Julian Perrotta and Shea Nordheim sent Nathan Beck to the bench early in his last game with a bloody leg courtesy of Nordheim’s cleats in a forceful two-footed tackle, earning Nordheim his fourth yellow of the year. Yellow-card machine Jean-Claude Campeau also managed his fourth caution in the first half when he mowed down Jordan Mannix.
Hagen made the game in the 87th after ten minutes of consistent Dal pressure. It wasn’t a pretty goal. After a very close offside call against UNB which angered the Reds, Ben Ur launched the free kick 70 yards to the UNB goal. Just before McMurray could catch it, Hagen leapt up unmarked and flicked it past him, sending an admittedly sparser-than-anticipated homecoming crowd into raptures.
UNB pressed and got nothing in the last couple of minutes. Then petulance resurfaced again, with James Green making a rude gesture towards the referee crew at full-time, in reaction to a throw-in call he didn’t like. After the disgusting displays by St. FX, it was a difficult situation to watch for Dal fans.
“We all try to motivate each other to stay cool,” said Tiger’s striker Sam Vlessing. “We’ll let them take cards, we’ll stay cool and collected and win the game.”
Dal were without influential midfielder Chris Haughn after an ankle injury sustained against St. FX. Nathan Rogers was also out with an injury.
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