The York Lions men's soccer team battled the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds on Friday afternoon in the consolation semi-finals of the U SPORTS championships and advanced to the consolation finals after a hard fought 1-0 victory.
 
Despite their loss yesterday in the quarterfinal round, the Lions came out aggressive against the Varsity Reds and played with intensity throughout all 90 minutes of the match.
 
"It was good to get some guys who don't play as much into the lineup, they earned some more playing time and that's important for us to move on with our program and see what they can offer," said York head coach Carmine Isacco on the game. "Obviously, we wanted to be in the afternoon games, but stuff happens and it's good that we reacted the way we did. It's important to represent the school well, to represent ourselves well as individuals and I thought we did okay today."
 
The OUA champions had the first good scoring opportunity of the game on a hard strike from 20 yards out by Cristian Cavallini that was saved by Reds keeper Evan Barker. Lions keeper Shyon Gaeeni, who was making the first start of the Lions career, was tested early by UNB forward Tristan Nkoghe who broke in towards the goal down the left side of the field but Gaeeni was up to the challenge and made his first save of the match on the AUS rookie of the year.
 
In the 18^th minute it looked like the Lions jumped out to a 1-0 lead when forward Christopher Jacovou buried a goal passed Barker, however he was just a few steps offside and the goal was called back to keep the game scoreless. The Lions controlled the majority of the action through the first-half and were buzzing around the Varsity Reds net in search of the game's first goal. Cavallini had another good scoring chance in the 30^th minute, but his low, hard strike went just wide of the right post.
 
The Lions kept the pressure on and were rewarded in the 32^nd minute when Cavallini found Jacovou with a nice touch pass behind the Reds defense. Jacovou again beat Barker but this time the goal counted to give the Lions a 1-0 lead. The game was scoreless for the rest of the half and the Lions went into the locker room with a one-goal lead.
 
The second-half started slowly with most of the game being played in the middle of the field. The Varsity Reds started to tilt the field in their favour about ten minutes into the half, but the Lions defence kept their positioning and prevented them from getting any grade A scoring chances.
 
In the latter stages of the second-half York turned the tables on their east coast counterparts and held possession of the ball in the Reds end while the game clock ticked away. Midfielders Emmanuel Zambazis and Maurizio Ragone both played key roles in running out the clock as their elite ball control skills helped keep UNB pinned in their own end.
 
Gaeeni made a save in the 87^th minute off a header from a UNB forward and the Lions defence held strong as UNB made a charge in the final minutes but were unable to find the equalizer as the clock ticked away and the Lions came out with the 1-0 victory. Gaeeni made four saves in the game to pick up the first win and shutout of his Lions career. Defender Daniel Gogarty was named player of the game for the Lions while midfielder Joe Hamilton was named player of the game for the Varsity Reds.
 
With the win the Lions move on to the consolation final to play the winner of the other consolation semi-final between the host UBC Thunderbirds and UQAM Citadins. The game will kick off at UBC's Thunderbird Stadium at 1:30pm PT (4:30pm ET) and can be seen live at usports.live.