KINGSTON, Ont. (October 28, 2015)- For the fourth-straight season, the Queen's Gaels men's soccer team has qualified for the OUA quarter-finals, topping the UOIT Ridgebacks 2-1 on a wet Wednesday afternoon at Miklas-McCarney Field in their divisional playoff match.
 
With the victory, the men will now travel to Toronto on Sunday afternoon to take on the OUA East second-seeded U of T Varsity Blues, with a ticket to the OUA Final Four up for grabs.
 
GAME FLOW
With both a wind and rainfall warning in effect throughout Kingston and the surrounding area, the teams had the challenge of a very slick surface at Miklas-McCarney Field that raised the acceleration of the ball as well as powerful gusts that played tricks on various aerial trajectories. It was the hosts who would strike first early in the contest, as Victoria, B.C. native Chris Wellsman's shot from outside the penalty area took a favourable deflection off a Ridgeback player and snuck behind UOIT goalkeeper Travis Martin in the 10th minute.
 
Sam Abernathy (Halifax, Ont.) doubled the Gael advantage just lead five minutes later with a well-placed low shot that skipped across the wet turf and found the left corner just inside of the post. Queen's two-goal advantage would be short-lived, however, as the Ridgebacks responded just over 10 minutes after Abernathy's marker to close the gap.
 
Erik Petrovic found some space just a few yards out from the top of the box off a broken down play, and his well-paced shot went just beyond the fingertips of Taylor Reynolds (Kingston) and into the low right corner, bringing the visitors within a goal of evening the match at the 26-minute mark of the opening half.
 
The Gaels had a number of opportunities to add an insurance marker early on in the second half. After Martin made a sharp-angle stop on his near post, the rebound was sent just wide of the opposite goal just moments into the second-half. Patrick van Belleghem (Kenora, Ont.) had two chances widen Queen's lead, but had his attempts denied by Martin on both attempts.
 
The Ridgebacks pressed for more scoring chances of their own in the latter stages, but the Gael defense denied any open shots for UOIT, whose best opportunity came on a free-kick from the 25-yard line. Fabio Campoli's curving drive sailed a little high, bouncing off the top of the Queen's crossbar and away from harm.
 
FINAL SAY
"With the weather warnings here we did plan to be a little simpler with our play," said Head Coach Christian Hoefler. "UOIT is always well-organized, they've got some pace up top, and their keeper made some solid saves. They deserve credit, they battled us. We were able to come through and I'm really proud of our guys. We're struggling with injuries right now, so this gives us a few days to heal and get ready for Toronto."
 
"Toronto's always been a well-coached side, so we're going to do our studying as we have been doing all season, and have full-belief going into Sunday that we can achieve our goal of qualifying for the OUA Final Four"
 
BY THE NUMBERS
4- The number of successive years Queen's has qualified for the conference quarter-finals
5- The number of saves by Gaels keeper Taylor Reynolds

UP NEXT
The Gaels will take on the Varsity Blues this Sunday at 3:15 p.m. in the OUA quarter-finals. The teams split the season series, with Toronto shutting out Queen's 3-0 in Kingston on September 5, and the Gaels responding with a 2-1 win at Varsity Centre on September 19.