VOYAGEURS GAIN HISTORIC POINT IN TIE VERSUS CONCORDIA
LAC LA BICHE – A tie is like kissing your sister according to an old axiom. In that case, the Portage College Voyageurs are happy to pucker up.
The Men's Soccer team played a strong game on Saturday in cold and blustery conditions at the Bold Centre Soccer Field and walked away with an historic point versus the Concordia Thunder in the process. When the final whistle sounded on a 2-2 draw, Portage had its seventh point of the season, one more than any other season in its six-year history.
"We have the most points in our program ever on the men's side so we've already showed improvement and now we've got three more games left to see if we can get a few more points," said Head Coach Macky Singh of his rebuilding program. "That will really push us further on."
A week after losing 3-0 to the Thunder in Edmonton, the Voyageurs played a stronger game, especially in the first half. After falling behind 1-0 in the 36th minute on a Carlos Echeverria penalty kick, scoring sensation Taylor Bridger with his sixth of the season and Cody Lawson with his first helped the home squad roar back to lead 2-1 at half.
"Our first half was really good…We were tight, we were not getting beat in behind so that was an important piece that we wanted to make sure we were doing," said Singh. "We worked on getting crosses in a lot this whole week and in the first half we did a lot of that."
The head coach was lot less enamoured with the final 45 minutes, noting that his troops got away from the game plan somewhat, crossing a lot less and committing a costly foul in the box, allowing Echeverria to score his second of the game on another penalty kick.
"We're not quite getting there yet, we still haven't put together a 90-minute game yet, so I think that's something that we really ought to look at," said Singh.
Still, with Bridger chasing the all-time Voyageur scoring record and the team making historic strides, the veteran of more than 300 collegiate games feels like his rebuilding squad is playing with house money. He is looking forward to the remaining part of the schedule, kicking off with an evening game against Lakeland College on Thursday night in Lac La Biche.
"Hopefully Taylor can get a couple more goals…and then hopefully we can get some results going forward in the next three games," said Singh.
Players of the Game
Concordia: #8 Carlos Echeverria
Portage: #23 Cody Lawson
