SHERBROOKE, Que., McGill sniper
Mehdi Ibn-Brahim of Casablanca, Morocco., scored twice but it was all for naught as a killer goal in stoppage time left McGill with a 3-2 loss to Sherbrooke and on the brink of elimination from playoffs in men's soccer, Friday, at Stade de l'Université de Sherbrooke.
McGill fell to 3-6-2 and sank to sixth place in RSEQ division standings while Sherbrooke earned its first win of the season and a 1-9-1 record.
Despite the loss, McGill's playoff hopes remain alive as a home-field victory over Laval in a critical Sunday matinee could create a potential four-way tie for third place. Concordia and Laval have 14 points apiece with UQAM and McGill only three points in arrears with one game left to play. McGill would win the four-way tie-breaker based on a better winning percentage in all games involving the teams that would be deadlocked.
"We lost the game because we weren't good enough to find the back of the net and defended poorly on three goals," said head coach
Marc Mounicot, whose team fired 30 volleys toward the Sherbrooke net and had a 13-3 edge in shots on target but failed to finish. On the final play of the game, McGill was unable to neutralize a Sherbrooke corner kick which resulted in the winning goal.
McGill fell behind twice but both times, Ibn-Brahim clawed his team back into the fight. With one game remaining, the 5-foot-7 mathematics senior has taken over the conference scoring lead with eight goals. UQTR's
Félix Bouchard and UdeM's
Guy-Frank Essomé Penda rank second with seven goals apiece.
Olivier Aglot,
William Majeau and
Alexis Yelle supplied the offence for Sherbrooke. The official scoring times were not made available by the host team.
Sherbrooke 'keeper
Antoine Goulet registered 13 saves for the win while McGill's
Theo Farineau was beaten three times on three shots and took the loss.
McGill fielded a lineup that was missing five starters, including forwards
Dalin Saheb and
Michael Makepeace, midfielder
Sebastian Cobuzzi, defender
Benjamin Joannette-Pilon and starting goalkeeper
Chris Cinelli-Faia.
The playoff berths will all be decided on Sunday (Oct. 20) as all four teams in the potential four-way tie are scheduled for a simultaneous 1 p.m. kickoff.With everything still to play for, Sherbrooke (1-9-1) faces UQAM (3-6-2) while McGill (3-6-2) hosts the Laval Rouge et Or (4-5-2) on Sunday with a 1 p.m. kick-off.
In the event of a multi-team deadlock on points, RSEQ rules dictate that the tie-breaker is determined by a mini-standings involving all head-to-head results between the teams involved. McGill is 1-0-1 against Concordia, 1-1-0 against UQAM and lost 2-1 to Laval on August 30. So Sunday's matchup between McGill and Laval will make or break McGill's season.
"I hope that we get a large, noisy crowd for the Laval game," said Mounicot, whose veteran team is long overdue for a lucky break after having been snake-bitten a number of times this season. "It will give our guys a big boost."
2019 RSEQ UNIVERSITY MEN'S SOCCER STANDINGS
(12-GAME SCHEDULE)
Sunday will also be Seniors Day, where the graduating players could be suiting up for the last time. Tickets are available on the McGill Athletics and Recreation
website.
