The York University Lions men's soccer team earned a 2-0 victory over the UQAM Citadins in their U SPORTS consolation semifinal at Hillside Stadium in Kamloops, B.C., on Friday afternoon.
 
After a heartbreaking loss to the host Thompson Rivers WolfPack on Thursday night, the Lions came back the following day with a much better effort and rolled to the victory. UQAM was also playing after a tough loss as they fell 3-0 to the Cape Breton Capers in their quarter-final match.
 
It was a pair of fifth-year veterans who put the Lions on the scoreboard in this game, ensuring they will get to play one more contest before their careers come to an end on Saturday. Midfielder Joey Cicchillo scored a beauty in the 74^th minute, taking a pass from Jonathan Lao into the box and then beating UQAM goalkeeper Valerie Lamoulin to the right and tapping the ball into the open net.
 
"It looked a lot like my goal from the OUA finals. It was a beautiful team goal, I couldn't have done it without the movement of the other guys and so that made it special," said Cicchillo of his tally, which also earned him player of the game honours.
 
"It was not the result we wanted last night but for a lot of the senior guys, we didn't want this to be our last game. We were definitely more relaxed today and played our style of soccer. We played through our opponent better and played on the transition where we've been most dangerous this season."
 
The same two players factored into the second goal just eight minutes later. Cicchillo was hauled down hard inside the box, giving the Lions a penalty kick that Lao stepped up and took. Lamoulin got a hand on the ball but not enough of one and the ball rolled into the far left corner of the net for the final goal of the game.
 
In the first half, UQAM spent a lot of time in front of York's net but didn't generate many actual scoring chances. At the other end of the pitch, the Lions fired a few shots at Lamoulin but none of them were particularly dangerous.
 
The second half was dominated by the Lions as significant stretches of time were spent in the Citadins' end with York possession of the ball, and they were finally rewarded for their efforts with 16 minutes remaining thanks to Cicchillo's goal.
 
The Lions had 14 total shots in the game compared to just five for the Citadins, and had six corner-kick opportunities while UQAM had none. Lamoulin finished with five saves on the seven shots he faced, and York rookie goalkeeper Mike Argyrides made three saves to earn the cleansheet.
 
The consolation final will now see the Lions face the Carleton Ravens in a rematch of last week's OUA gold-medal game, which the Lions won by a score of 2-0. Carleton earned their spot in the consolation final with a 4-3 win over the UNB Varsity Reds in their semi. The two teams will take the pitch at Hillside Stadium at 1:30pm PT (4:30pm ET) on Saturday.