Emily Goodwin | Editor-in-Chief
Featured Image: Super scorer Jorgo Nika celebrates after scoring in Friday’s game against the Varisty Blues with Reggie Laryea (left) and Christopher Jacovoua (right). | Courtesy of Jojo Yanjio Qian/York Lions
After back-to-back conference sweeps, the Lions took home silver following the OUA final match Saturday evening when they were bested by the Carleton Ravens 3-0.
The weekend got off to a promising start for the Lions. They easily took down the Varsity Blues in front of a supportive home crowd during Friday night’s semi-final match. After battling it out for most of the first half, the Lions were the first to score when Jorgo Nika headed the ball towards the Varsity Blues’ net, which then bounced off a Blues’ defender and rolled into their own net.
Both sides had plenty of chances to score but just couldn’t find the sweet spot, that is until Omar Marzouk came on the pitch for the Lions and scored to put his team up to 2-0.
Confident they could repeat their victory, the Lions took to their home field less than 24 hours later to face the Ravens in the finals for the third straight year.
The Ravens came out swinging in the opening half, and the Lions struggled to keep up with their fiery opponent. The Ravens took eight shots on goal in just the opening half, two of which made their way past the Lions’ star goalkeeper Mike Argyrides. Stefan Karajovanovic buried the ball in the Lions’ net on a penalty shot, and four minutes later Quinn Honeyman-Wootten scored on a corner kick pass from Emad Houache.
Down 2-0 at half time, the Lions entered the final half with urgency to make up the deficit. They outshot the Ravens, but were unsuccessful in getting past Ravens’ keeper Nick Jeffs. The Ravens were able to slip past the Lions once again in the 68th minute when Karajovanovic scored off another corner kick for a final score of 3-0 in favour of the Ravens.
Despite this devastating loss, the Lions still earned a spot at the U SPORTS Championships. They will head to Montreal to take on the host Montreal Carabins in Thursday’s opening round.
The Lions will head into nationals with other accolades to be proud of. Six players earned OUA West first-team all-star awards: keeper Argyrides, defenders Reggie Laryea and Francesco Sinopoli, midfielder Nika, and strikers Merci Yuma and Christopher Jacovou.
