If Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” is about loss and madness, the Blues’ most recent loss to a Carleton team of the same name can be said to exemplify frustration. Carleton came into the game this past weekend having only lost one regular season game since 2005, and they didn’t appear interested in experiencing another defeat for a while. Playing against the same Blues team that eliminated them from the OUA quarter-finals just the year before, Carleton must have had revenge in mind.
It didn’t quite turn out that way, much like the protagonist of Poe’s famous poem, the Blues turned out to be their own worst enemies in the end. The Raven’s did not have to do much to take the win. Toronto started out flat and just couldn’t seem to get an offensive game going. When opportunities presented themselves, the Blues either hit the cross bar or the side of the net.
“We lost the game in the first half,” said head coach Anthony Capotosto, “we didn’t follow our game plan, we came out flat, our intensity level was too low, and I’ll take responsibility for that.”
It has been a frustrating season so far for the Blues, a team with championship aspirations. Toronto has taken home the consolation prize in the last three OUA finals, but coach Capotosto is taking it all in stride. The third-year coach put this season in perspective, saying, “We definitely have a lot to look forward to. We are interested in how we finish the year, not how we are doing at the middle or the beginning. We got off to a very slow start this season by our standards and we’re looking to improve as a team and play our best soccer in October.”
Last season, Toronto finished third in the conference with an 8-3-3 record. But with 2 losses and 3 ties to open the year, they will have to run the table the rest of the way to match their impressive 2006 performance.
It will be a tough feat against Queen’s who comes into this weekend’s tilt second in the OUA, behind Carleton, and has only lost once this season (5-1-2). As Coach Capostoto explained, “Queens is an organized team, a high pressure team. They have good spirit and good energy, and they’re going to come in here and try to take three points from us. There’s no doubt about it.”
Against Carleton over the weekend Toronto’s lone goal came courtesy of defender Dustin Chung, as the team could only muster four shots on goal compared to the Ravens’ nine. Goaltender Matthew Willis tried to keep the game close for Toronto with six saves, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Evan Milward led Toronto with three shots, while striker Mike Bialy, last seasons CIS MVP, was neutralized by the Ravens’ defense and finished the game without registering a shot on net.
With October fast approaching, the Blues will have to find their groove in a hurry, or at least have a few four-leaf clovers in tow. Blues captain Joe Reeny saw the Ravens game as a case of bad luck, not in the superstitious sense, but rather in terms of missed opportunities and bad bounces that could easily have been goals or saves.
“I agree with the coach, we came out really flat in the first half. But we had a few bad breaks, balls just bouncing through, with weird goals that put us behind. In the second half we tried to come out hard and got one goal back, but we also hit a few posts and cross bars. We had our chances, but in the end they were a better team today.”
