Toronto - McMaster's men's soccer team took on the No. 1 CIS ranked York Lions on Wednesday afternoon. The showdown between the nationally-ranked men's soccer teams ended in a draw at York Stadium.
The first great chance of the game came in the 11th minute courtesy of Adrian Pena (Woodbridge, Ont.). He fired a hard shot on net that went off the chest of McMaster goalkeeper Angelo Cavalluzzo (Hamilton, Ont.) and up in the air. Pena tried again on the rebound but the ball bounced up off his foot and into the corner of the pitch.
Pena finally got the Lions on the board in the 38th minute with his 15th goal of the season. Defender Branko Majstorovic (Mississauga, Ont.) deked around a defender and sent a beautiful cross pass into the front of the net, which Pena promptly headed behind Cavalluzzo for the game's first goal.
The Lions carried their 1-0 lead into the half, and continued to dominate for the first part of the second. They nearly took a two-goal lead in the 61st minute when Pena sent in a great cross pass, but the ball was just out of the reach of Shaun MacDonald (Mississauga, Ont.).
After that the Marauders quickly took control of the game as they tried to find the equalizer. They nearly got their first goal in the 64th minute on a lucky bounce when Majstorovic nearly headed the ball into his own net, but MacDonald cleared the ball off the goal line just before it rolled in.
One minute later Andrew Pastoric (Oakville, Ont.) hit a shot off the post, and in the 74th minute he took another shot that beat York goalkeeper Sotiri Varlokostas (Toronto) but hit the crossbar.
Varlokostas then made a pair of tremendous saves on Gersi Xhuti (Etobicoke, Ont.) to maintain his team's lead, punching the ball over the net in the 79th minute and then just getting a finger on the ball to push it wide in the 81st.
After more than 20 minutes of intense offensive pressure, the Marauders finally scored the tying goal in the 85th minute on a 25-yard free kick by Ryan Garnett (Kitchener, Ont.) that sailed over the wall and Varlokostas and into the top corner of the net.
In the final minutes Dan Niksic fired a pair of shots at Varlokostas, but the goalie made the save on both to preserve the tie.
The Lions had one final chance on the final play of the game, but Pena's free kick sailed wide.
Overall, the Marauders outshot the Lions 9-1 in the second half. Varlokostas made nine saves in the game while Cavalluzzo needed to stop just two.
McMaster sits comfortably in second place in the OUA West, and are just three points behind York for the top spot. The Marauders face the Windsor Lancers on Saturday at 3:15pm and the Western Mustangs on Sunday at the same time in their last regular season games.
