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TMU Athletics & Recreation

THE OFFICIAL HOME OF TMU Bold
THE OFFICIAL HOME OF THE TMU Bold HOME OF THE TMU Bold
A TMU player chases down a soccer ball.
Photo by Emily Simonetta
1
Trent TRENT ()
5
Winner Toronto Metropolitan TMU ()
Trent TRENT
()
1
Final
5
Toronto Metropolitan TMU
()
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Trent TRENT 1 0 1
Toronto Metropolitan TMU 0 5 5

Game Recap: Soccer (M) | | Nashra Syed

Bold dominate in second half, net five to beat Excalibur

TORONTO - The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men's soccer team secured a ticket to the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) playoffs after they won their final game of the regular season against the Trent Excalibur.

Before kickoff, the team honoured their two graduating seniors, forwards Karamvir Mehmi and Luca Di Marco. Mehmi is graduating from the Arts and Contemporary Studies program, while Di Marco is finishing up his Business Management degree.

"I just want to do my part, best I can to help my team whether it's coming off the bench, whether it's starting, or anything I can do. Whether it's to provide assists or goals, my defensive work rate, whatever I have to do because we have one goal. Everybody's on the same page; to lift that trophy at the end of the year," said Mehmi.

The cold and windy conditions didn't make playing at Downsview easy, but the first half was off to a strong start for the Bold, with back to back chances at goal.

"It's not an excuse for playing poorly the first half but the wind was a big factor. Not just playing the ball in the air but just running against the wind, it's a lot more taxing as well," said head coach Filip Prostran.

With a save from the Excalibur goalie, the Bold were working up their way to score.

Despite the home team's efforts, the Excalibur were able to squeeze past the Bold's defensive line and find a goal in the 35th minute.

Minute after minute the Bold grew frustrated. It seemed like no matter how hard they tried, they weren't able to find the back of the net, but that would all change after halftime.

"We got in the changeroom and the talk from the team was really positive," said Prostran. "I just told them, just get on the ball, be a little more patient, a couple rotations we changed, but other than that, it was just playing with more of a sense of urgency," he added.

In the opening minutes of the second half, the Excalibur were fouled for a hand ball, granting the Bold a penalty kick. Leading goal scorer Chris Campoli took the penalty to swiftly add a goal for the Bold in the 47th minute.

Third-year Zakaria Abdi knew the team needed more to pull up a lead over the Excalibur and his mentality was to just focus on the next ball.

"Forget about the last chance, the next one's going to go in," said Abdi.

The Bold were able to find their footing early in the second and went on to dominate the game.

Abdi quickly potted two back-to-back goals, allowing the Bold to have a 3-1 lead on the visitors.

"What I was thinking was we need a quick response after the first half, a slow start by us and then I was just hoping the ball fell to me and two balls fell to me perfectly and I was lucky enough to score both of those," said the third-year forward.

The Excalibur were unable to defend their net as Campoli approached and scored another, making it his second goal of the game.

WIth an assist from midfielder Justin Santos, first-year Mauro Lulli ran past the Excalibur to scoop the ball into Trent goal, adding another on the scoreboard in the 79th minute.

The game ended in a 5-1 win for the blue and gold, with their regular season coming to a sweet close. The team can't rest just yet, as they look ahead to the first round of the OUA playoffs on October 25.

"This is what it's all about. Working hard the regular season so we can get the results and playoffs," said Mehmi. "We're still going to train as hard as we can, we still have the same goal and nothing changes," the graduate added.
 
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