Weekend Roundup - Sept 8/9

The second weekend of September saw the OUA seasons continue, the OCAA season kick off, and a return home for local CSL team Kingston FC. The majority of the games took place out of town, in the Greater Toronto Area in fact, while Kingston FC had the weekend at home all to themselves.

In the OUA, RMC was playing the University of Toronto on Saturday and Ryerson Sunday, while Queen's played the same teams, but in the opposite order. St. Lawrence kicked off their outdoor season with a visit to the Centennial Colts in Scarborough on Sunday afternoon, and Kingston FC faced off against the Serbian White Eagles from Toronto on Saturday evening.

Weekend Roundup - Sept 1/2

With the opening weekend of the university seasons now underway, it was fitting that the Queen's University Gaels would face off against their cross-town rivals RMC Paladins to start things off.

Over the last few years, the RMC teams have been weaker than Queen's, primarily due to recruiting and admission requirements at RMC, but this weekend's games really showed that gap. The games were both played Sunday afternoon out at the new turf field at West Campus, which is now the home of Queen's soccer. The teams will play their entire home schedules there, but still practice twice a week on the Richardson grass fields.

RMC 2012 CIS Schedule

The RMC OUA schedule was released a few weeks ago, and features an opening weekend matchup at local rivals Queen's University on September 2nd.

This Sunday afternoon, the RMC women face Algonquin College at RMC, and then will play the St Lawrence College women this coming Wednesday at 5pm, also at RMC.

OUA 2011 All-Stars - Men

The OUA women's all-stars and honours were announced on Thursday, and the men's honours followed on Friday afternoon.

The Kingston based teams did well in the awards with five players being named between the Queen's Gaels and RMC Paladins. The University of Toronto Blues and Carleton Ravens led the way with nine players being named between the two teams, fitting based on their positions at the top of the OUA East.

OUA 2011 All-Stars - Women

The OUA all-stars were announced Thursday morning for women's soccer, both East and West.

The Queen's Gaels fared excellently with third-year midfielder Riley Filion earning the OUA East MVP award and a first team all-star naming. Filion scored six goals this season for the Gaels and is a two-time CIS Championship All-Star, member of the Canadian women's summer universiade team, and scored the winning goal in the CIS Championship game last season.

Weekend roundup - Oct 22/23

The last week of the regular season came very quickly for the CIS soccer teams, with everything finishing up this weekend. On the line for the Queen's Gaels teams were playoff seedings, while the RMC Paladins were playing for pride, having been eliminated from the playoffs already.

The Nipissing Lakers and Laurentian Voyageurs were down for the weekend, after Queen's and RMC had visited them last weekend. Nipissing, like RMC, were playing for pride, but both Laurentian teams were playing for playoff seedings in the hopes being able to host their first round playoff games this coming Wednesday.

Weekend roundup - Oct 15/16

Similar to last week, it was another busy weekend for Kingston based teams with two college home games and eight university away games.

There were also two college home games played midweek. Both Vikings men and women lost that night by 2-1 scorelines against Fleming, and in both cases had taken the lead early in the game, giving up the winning goal late. Carolina Parravano scored for the women, and Adam Wood scored the first goal of the season for the men's squad.

The St. Lawrence Vikings men's and women's squads both played their final games of the season, hosting the Centennial Colts on Sunday afternoon. The women won convincingly by a 3-0 scoreline with goals from Erica Routhier, Megan Hutcheson, and Jocelyn Sutton. This keeps the Vikings mathematically in the playoff hunt at 7 points on the season (2-4-1 record), but they have to hope that their two closest competitors (La Cite and Fleming) lose both of their upcoming games.

Weekend roundup - Oct 8/9

This weekend's schedule featured two college home games and eight university away games.

Both St. Lawrence teams played at home on Friday, with the men's team playing their first game at home after a rough 0-2-2 road trip to start their season. A goal with less than 10 minutes left gave their opponents, Seneca Sting, a 1-0 win on the day. This leaves the men's Vikings team in the difficult position of having to win both of their last two games to have a chance at the playoffs.

The women's team fared much worse losing 3-0 to the Seneca Sting squad. Two Vikings players left the game due to injury, one of their midfielders (#14) and their starting goalkeeper, Jessica Dodge. The women are in a three-way tie for fourth place, and winning both of their last two games would give them a good shot at the playoffs.

Weekend roundup - Oct 1/2

With a weekend schedule including five university home games and three college away games, Kingston-based teams did not have the best of weekends all told.
The St. Lawrence teams played up in the Toronto area this past weekend, with both women and men facing Durham College on Friday evening, and the men facing George Brown on Saturday afternoon. The men came away with two scoreless draws on the weekend, bringing their record up to 2 losses and 2 draws. The women had much poorer luck, losing by a 2-0 score against Durham College, dropping their record to 1 win, 2 losses, and a draw.

University: RMC Paladins v Queen's Gaels quick summary

Yesterday afternoon, the RMC Paladins and Queen's Gaels teams played each other for the second time this season. Previously, Queen's took both games by a 1-0 score in the men's game and 3-1 in the women's. Both games were extremely close and were decided in the very late stages.

Thursday's games were both played out at RMC's campus just across the LaSalle Causeway over the Cataraqui River (a tributary of the Rideau Canal). Unfortunately, I was unable to attend either game, but got a quick summary of the game from one of the assistant coaches of the Queen's women's squad.

Weekend roundup - Sept 24/25

There was a lot of soccer being played in the Kingston area this weekend, starting off with the St. Lawrence College Vikings women's soccer team starting their season off against Loyalist College from Belleville on the Thursday evening. St. Lawrence and Loyalist College played to a hard fought 1-1 draw to begin the OCAA season.

University Women: RMC Paladins 0, Ryerson Rams 1

With Sunday morning looking dreary and cool, I feared the worst for the afternoon. I was assigned as one of the assistants for the RMC women's game against the Ryerson Rams, the second time I'd seen Ryerson in two days.

I arrived in plenty of time at the RMC campus and talked with RMC's coach Chad Beaulieu and one of their assistants, Mark Stanley, for a bit before the rest of the team of referees arrived. We talked about their season to date and how even though they've had some trouble with injuries over the last couple of weeks, they were pleased with how the team has been handling the adversity.

The game was scheduled to be played on Navy Bay 4, which is just to the left upon entering the campus, one of six sports fields surrounding the campus entrance. The field was in fantastic shape, and very little wind was coming in off of the bay at the meeting of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario. With few clouds in the sky and a bright sun, it was almost natural that we would be wearing black uniforms for the game.

University Men: Queen's Gaels 1, RMC Paladins 0

The second game of the day was scheduled to be played on Tindall Field on the main Queen's campus due to a scheduling conflict at Richardson Stadium with the football team. As such, I decided to skip home to grab some dinner after the early game and then headed down to the men's game, arriving just in time to see the second half kick off.

University Women: Queen's Gaels 3, RMC Paladins 1

On a nice Friday afternoon, Queen's University hosted the other local university, RMC, out at Richardson Stadium this afternoon. Due to work obligations, I was unable to get to the game in time for its kickoff at 3:30pm, and got there in the 22nd minute of play.

To put today's game into perspective, it is best to know that over the past few years, the Queen's women's team has done very well, winning the CIS championship last fall, while RMC's team has not done quite so well. Despite this, each time Queen's and RMC play each other, the games are very tight and very even with RMC's fitness matching well against the skill of the Queen's players.