Soccer X-Men see first loss of the season

The CIS ranked No. 5 X-Men soccer team suffered their first loss of the season this past weekend as they fell 2-1 to the Saint Mary’s Huskies Sunday afternoon in Halifax. StFX also played to a 2-2 tie with the Dalhousie Tigers on Saturday.

The X-Men hold onto their second place position in the AUS conference. They currently have a 5-1-3 record and 18 points, four back of first place Cape Breton (7-1-1) and two up on third place UPEI (4-1-4).

In Saturday’s draw with the Tigers, all the scoring came in the second half of the game. StFX’s A.J. Gray opened the scoring in the 47th minute but Wes Hawley tied it up for the Tigers in the 62nd minute.

Michael Marousek scored his 8th goal of the season late in the game in the 81st minute and the X-Men thought they were headed for a win, but the Tigers fought back and Julian Perrotta tallied the tying marker in the 85th minute.

Sam Hutchinson tended the StFX net while Dalhousie Player of the Game Ben Ur was in the Tigers net. A.J. Gray earned Player of the Game honors for the X-Men.

In Sunday’s game, the Huskies jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first half.Elvir Gigola scored off a penalty kick in the 27th minute, then the X-Men had an own goal just six minutes later to pad the Huskies lead.

The X-Men made a valiant effort in the second half to come back and Randy Ribiero scored in the 77th minute to cut the lead in half but that would be as close as they came as the Huskies hung on for the victory, becoming the first team to hand the X-Men a loss this season. 

Andrew MacDonald took the loss in nets for StFX while Adam Miller earned the win for Saint Mary’s.

Next on the schedule for the X-Men is a key match-up against the first place and CIS ranked No. 3 Cape Breton Capers on Friday evening at StFX Oland Stadium. Game time is 6:15 pm. Saturday afternoon at 3:15 pm the X-Men will host the UNB Varsity Reds.