Kingston, Ont. (September 27, 2015)- Four different players found the net for the Queen's Gaels men's soccer team on Sunday afternoon at Miklas-McCarney Field, as they were able to hold off a late surge from the Trent Excalibur to come away with a 4-2 triumph, earning their fifth-straight victory in the process.
 
GAME FLOW
The Gaels (5-1-2) wasted no time opening the scoring, as Jacob Schroeter (Ottawa) was the recipient of a lovely though-ball from Oliver Coren (Toronto) that snuck through the Excalibur defence. Schroeter made no mistake, slipping the ball under Trent keeper Dave Ellis' glove and into the low right corner to give Queen's a 1-0 lead just three minutes into the contest.
 
The hosts proceeded to serve Trent a steady diet of long sideline volleys throughout most of the half, keeping the Excalibur on its heels for much of the opening stanza. After coming on as a substitute in the 33rd minute, Rory McParland (Halifax, N.S.) skillfully deflected the ball through Trent's back-line and onto the foot of Patrick Van Belleghem (Kenora, Ont.), who tucked his shot under the glove of Ellis but just wide of the right post. The hosts would take a 1-0 lead into halftime.
 
Mirroring their early strike in the first half, Queen's found the net minutes into the second as Jamie Barraclough (North Vancouver) drove a shot that bounced off the inside of the opposite post and into the goal, doubling the Gael spread. Van Belleghem had another opportunity to add to Queen's lead, but was unable to find the net from a sharp angle to the right of the Excalibur goal.
 
After Andrew Martin (Kingston, Ont.) picked up Queens's third and what was believed to be an insurance marker, the Excalibur offence caught fire, and brought themselves back within a goal of tying the match after markers by Marlon Adams and Jaycob Bond. With Trent pressing for the equalizer in the final moments, however, Briam Jimenez-Lopez (Brampton, Ont.) received the ball in-behind the Excalibur defenders, who had moved forward in an effort to help tie the contest, and put the match on ice with his first goal of the regular season.
 
THE LAST WORD
"The win is always a credit to our players. We're starting to gel a bit better now, I think that there's progressively more belief in what we're doing and a lot more understanding of our strengths as a team. I give a lot of credit to Trent, they battled until the very end of the match. We did have a lot of missed opportunities that we'll work on this week to minimize as we move forward with the season." – Christian Hoefler (Head Coach)
 
BY THE NUMBERS
5- The Gaels current win streak and regular season win total
6- Jacob Schroeter's conference goal tally, ranking him fourth in the OUA
4- The number of different goal scorers in the Gaels' victory
17- Queen's point total at the end of the weekend, ranking them fourth in the OUA East division
 
UP NEXT
Queen's heads north next weekend to take on the Nipissing Lakers and Laurentian Voyageurs on  October 3 and 4. The Gaels next return to Miklas-McCarney Field on Friday, October 9 when they host the RMC Paladins.