Homecoming weekend preview

By Dylan Matthias, Sports Editor

Take a quick glance at our print cover this week. Homecoming’s sort of important.

Sure, it’s not really for everyone. But why waste a weekend filled with so many tantalizing Tigers home games. For the soccer and football teams, it’s the last chance to see them this weekend, as both head off to playoffs in a couple of weeks. Volleyball are at home for some preseason fun, and Dal will be hosting its first tailgate party in a long, long time.

For football, this is a statement game. A 2–0 start to the season probably inflated expectations a little, but two straight home losses, especially when there are only three home dates is no way to impress the fans. It’s also no way to have a winning season.

The Tigers newest team will grace Wickwire one more time this year, and the prospects aren’t exactly promising. The Moncton Bluebombers, despite the knock-off name, are a very, very solid team. Moncton takes its football very seriously, after all. Dal will be hard-pressed to win, but they were hard-pressed to win against UNB, too. The team has developed a tendency to grind out results against the odds, so tomorrow’s game should be worth watching.

Weather cut into the fan numbers last week leaving lots of space at Wickwire, but barring a rainstorm of epic proportions tomorrow, it’s a good idea to arrive early. You can catch a bit of the men’s soccer while you’re at it.

And the soccer Tigers will be in tough on Saturday against third-in-the-country St. FX. Third they may be, but this is still an X team that hasn’t been tested at a national level and a team which Dal gave a pretty good run to in Antigonish a couple of weeks ago.

If the support is strong and the bounces go Dal’s way, an upset could be on the cards here. They’ll have to shut down Michal Marousek and find some way to deal with long throws from Miroslav Novak or the result will be similar to their loss in Antigonish.

The men kick off at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday at Wickwire. They’ll also take on a third-in-AUS-but-not-really-looking-like-it UNB team on Friday at 7:15 p.m.. It should be an easy three points for Dal, but these are the sorts of games Dal has been fouling up this season, so watch out.

The women’s soccer teams will look to remain undefeated against UNB and St. FX, two teams they should have little trouble dealing with.

The women are playing some beautiful soccer as of late, and this will be your last chance to see them live before they head away to see how far they can get in the playoffs.

The women play at 5 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Dal rugby will also feature on Wickwire field this weekend, playing at 11 a.m. against Saint Mary’s. That alone makes waking up early worth it.

If you must turn your eyes from the celebration of all things Dal this weekend, turn them to UNB, where the Varsity Reds men’s hockey team take on Acadia. After a mixed weekend for both teams last week, this should be a game both feel they can win. Which means one of them won’t. The game is at 7 p.m. and is webcast on SSN Canada.

Saint Mary’s football play at 2 p.m. on Saturday against Mt. Allison, a game which you would think they’d win, but for the teams being equal on points this year. Mt. A took out Acadia last weekend so there is some potential for them to halt a strong run by SMU. There are major playoff seeding implications in this one.

Did we miss something? Let us know at sports@dalgazette.com. We hope to see you out on the weekend.