The St. Clair College men’s soccer team (5-1-1) traveled to London and earned a hard fought tie against the Fanshawe Falcons (5-1-1) October 5
The final score was 3-3. Fanshawe and St. Clair are tied at the top of the OCAA West Division. The St. Clair men are ranked #10 in Canada and #3 in Ontario while Fanshawe are ranked #13 in Canada and #4 in Ontario. St. Clair has scored 19 goals on the season and allowed 6 while Fanshawe has scored 20 and allowed 8.
In the 12th minute of the game, St. Clair was the first team on the scoreboard. After a long ball by the Saints defense, St. Clair’s Stefan Milidrag put one past the Falcons goalkeeper to give the Saints the 1-0 lead. Fanshawe had a couple of good attempts in the first half including a corner kick by Brent Anderson, which sailed across the middle of the Saints box right in front of the goal but wasn’t able to be converted. Fanshawe would find themselves down 1-0 at the half.
Fanshawe got off to a good start in the second half and Robert M’Boko scored to tie the game at one in the 47th minute on a controversial goal . After the goal, St. Clair keeper Shane Beaton received a yellow card immediately followed by a red card and was ejected from the game. The Saints would have to play the rest of the second half with only 10 players. However, in the 56th minute, after a great corner kick by the Saints Leighton Speechley-Price would put the ball in the back of the Fanshawe goal, giving St. Clair the lead, 2-1.
The Saints would score another shorthanded goal by Speechley-Price to go up 3-1 but the Falcons would keep pressing and in the 74th minute, M’Boko would score his second of the game in the top left corner of the net, closing the gap to just one. After 90 minutes of play, four minutes of extra time were added on and the Falcons would take advantage. After a scramble and some crazy bounces in front of the Saints goal, M’Boko would slide one past the St. Clair goalkeeper and tie the game 3-3. Despite the Saints being down a man for almost half the game Fanshawe only held a 12-10 shots on goal advantage.
St. Clair returns to action on Wednesday, October 12, when they travel to Sarnia to take on the Lambton Lions. The last time these teams met on September 14, the Saints won 2-1.