Losing streaks snapped with two impressive wins on a windy Sunday
The worst stretch of results in Guelph United history is over: yesterday afternoon, both our teams ended losing streaks with impressive, convincing wins that give us some breathing room in the relegation battles of League1 Ontario.
Fans who braced the heavy winds yesterday at the Centennial Bowl witnessed two exciting matches with lots of goals (including one by a goalkeeper), red cards, and plenty of excitement.
First, it was our men’s team, trying to end a string of 6 consecutive losses. We faced ProStars FC for the second time in three days. And the match couldn’t have started worse: in the 11th minute, Jacob Cabral received a soft red card after a high boot. Having to play with 10 men for most of the match did not dampen our spirits, however, and GUFC continued attacking, and opened the scoring in the 25th minute after a penalty kick converted by Gray Yates. ProStars equalized shortly after, following a controversial play in which the hosts argued there was a handball in the box. But a great attacking play coolly finished by Jared Agyemang gave us the lead at the half.
After the break, Guelph’s 10-man squad continued playing with confidence, and got a third goal with the help of the crazy high winds, which beautifully carried keeper Tristan Mitchell’s goal kick all the way into the ProStars goal. We scored one more in the 82nd minute - another penalty converted by Gray Yates, after a play which saw ProStars go a man down as well.
In the end, Guelph United obtained a convincing 4-1 win, which sees us move up to 9th place, 2 points above the bottom 2 spots which could bring relegation to the second-tier Championship division.
Guelph United - ProStars FC 4-1 (2-1)
Goals: Yates (‘27 pen, ‘82 pen), Agyemang (‘43), Mitchell (‘67) / Ilyass (‘33)
Red cards: Cabral (‘11) / Mehrang (‘85)
Yellow cards: Cordeiro, Agyemang, Sears / Diltz, Bickford, Doros, Mehrang
Guelph United: Mitchell - Pusztahegyi, Green, Fernandez, Dunn - MacIntyre - Cabral, Cordeiro, Yates, Sears (‘87 Ferdinand) - Agyemang (‘77 Ostrun).
The second match of the double-header saw our women’s team trying to snap their own 4-game losing streak, facing last place Blue Devils FC. And we did so, convincingly: a 4-0 win after a dominating performance. First, it was Sasha Marikano who opened the scoring in the 27th minute. Shortly after, Tori Hinchliffe scored at the end of a beautiful attacking play. After the break, our top goalscorer Olivia Rizakos added another goal to her tally, converting a penalty kick, and the final score was set in the 88th minute by Jyanessa Sealy, with her first goal of the year.
The win gets us into 8th place of the women’s Premier Division, 3 points ahead of Alliance United, who holds the relegation-threatened second-last place.
Guelph United - Blue Devils FC 4-0 (2-0)
Goals: Marikano (‘27), Hinchliffe (‘30), Rizakos (‘68 pen), Sealy (‘88)
Yellow cards: Crichton / -
Guelph United: Carreiro (‘81 Mazier) - Ward, Starcevic, Burke, Ladhani - Crichton, Mihalopulos, Oliveira (‘68 Hipkin) - Hinchliffe (‘60 Sealy), Marikano (‘81 Chin), Rizakos (‘72 Johnston).