Men's Soccer | 9/18/2025 12:00:00 PM
The York University Lions men's soccer team is getting set to play a pair of games that could go a long way in determining their fate as playoffs near.
The Lions, currently third in the OUA West, will visit the leaders in the division, the Waterloo Warriors, Friday night, before returning home to host the Guelph Gryphons on Monday evening at York Lions Stadium.
The Lions have won their division every year since 2007 when Carmine Isacco took over as the program's head coach. Despite earning points in three of their four games, York still finds itself six points back of the upstart Warriors, who are unbeaten on the year, having won five games and drew their other.
Waterloo won just three of its 12 games a season ago and missed the postseason. Now, just a year later, the Warriors are looking to dethrone the Lions as kings of the OUA West. A win Friday night would go a long way in doing that, as it would put the Warriors nine points clear of York with the head-to-head tiebreaker. However, a Lions win makes things much more interesting, bringing them to within three of Waterloo with the tiebreaker.
The Lions game Monday night is also a big one, as the Gryphons enter the weekend just a point back of the Lions for third in the West. A York win puts a bit of separation between them and the Gryphons, will a Guelph win could catapult them past York if the Lions don't beat the Warriors Friday.
The Lions have done a solid job keeping the ball out of their net thus far this season, only allowing two goals in their first five matches. Their defensive acumen will serve them well against the Warriors, who enter the weekend having scored the second-most goals in the province with 16 through six games. Meanwhile, Guelph has had trouble scoring despite only losing once thus far, only netting seven goals in their six games including three in one match.
The Lions have been a solid offensive team, averaging two goals a game and scoring more than once in three of their five games. Marco Sciortino, who scored a hat trick and had four points in Fridays win over Windsor to earn him York and OUA athlete of the week honours, will look to continue helping an offence that has scored eight times in the last three matches. However, to get back into the race for top spot in the division, they will need to find some consistency in the goal-scoring department, as the goals have come and gone at times in the first half.
These matches – both critical for postseason positioning even with five matches to go after Monday – will both begin at 8:15. You can get your tickets to Monday's match here and you can watch both games free of charge live on OUA.tv.
