TORONTO - The best season in Ryerson's OUA soccer history ended on Sunday with a 3-2 loss to the University of Western Ontario Mustangs in penalty kicks.
The Rams battled hard for 120 minutes, playing without leading scorer Adrian Mancini and playoff leading scorer Kevin Souter for almost an hour. Mancini and Souter were both issued two yellow cards in the second half, resulting in the red cards. From there the team played two men down against a full Mustang squad.
"It's a character test, it's a gut-check for the players on the field. They responded appropriately," said Head Coach Ivan Joseph. "I've got nothing but pride for them."
The game appeared to be over after Pat Mroczek scored a goal in the 100th minute, but the Rams pressed for the equalizer late in the second half of extra time. They weren't able to generate too many chances down two men, but OUA first team all-star Markus Molder netted an Alex Braletic rebound in the 120th minute to tie the game.
Western would regroup and go on to score all five of their shootout goals, while a Jason Morgan miss over the bar would ultimately prove costly for Ryerson. Braletic, Molder and Michael Jan scored in the shootout for Ryerson. The loss puts the Rams at fourth in the OUA and eliminated the team from qualifying for the CIS national championship, which begins this week at University of Toronto.
The red cards were uncharacteristic of the Rams who didn't acquire any during the regular season. In contrast, they received three in the two semi-final games this weekend and six yellows in Sunday's game.
"We play aggressive," said Joseph. "We haven't been in that situation all year, to get three in two playoff games seems suspicious. It seems like people say Ryerson doesn't belong here and we're going to make sure you know it."
The team was able to take some positives out of the game. The undermanned defense was able to shut down a Western offense that scored 31 goals on the season. Alex Braletic was named Ryerson's man of the match and Joseph received his OUA East's coach of the year award following the game.
The core of the team is still young and the only player who is ineligible to play next season is Souter. However, Souter, who scored the Rams first goal, will be making the transition from player-coach, to joining the coaching staff full-time.
To finish off the season Joseph said that the only difference between his team and the three others in the final four was experience.
"We will win a championship, mark my words, within three years," he said.
