By Mason Bugaresti
The Carleton Ravens’ 2022 playoff run has ended at the quarterfinal stage as the team lost 2-1 on the road to the TMU Bold after Ameer Kinani (Toronto, Ont.) scored a 90th minute penalty-kick to win it for the Bold.
The intensity in this match was high given the recent playoff matchups between the two sides as well as their two regular-season meetings. Chances were extremely difficult to come-by. Carleton’s biggest opportunity of the half came off the head of Chris Malekos (St. Hyppoltye, Que.) who redirected a Ravens free kick on goal, but was denied on a great save by TMU keeper Ali Ghazanfari (Stoufville, Ont.)
“We’ve got a lot of history with [TMU], and we’d love to get one over them,” Carleton head coach Kwesi Loney said three days before the match
“We’ve played them in the playoffs in recent years and they always prove to be high-intensity matchups,” Loney said.
The Ravens conceded a penalty kick just before halftime, giving the Bold the chance to take the lead. Justin Santos’ (Toronto, Ont.) shot was saved by Carleton keeper Tyler David (Hawkesbury, Ont.) to keep this one scoreless at the half.
Just three minutes into the second half, Luca Di Marco fired a low shot that beat David at his near post to put TMU in front 1-0. With Carleton struggling to create chances, the Bold keeper fouled a Raven inside the 18-yard box. Luca Piccioli stepped up and scored his penalty to knot the game at 1-1 in the 73rd minute.
In the 89th minute, the Ravens conceded a second penalty kick to the Bold after the referee called a handball in the box on Piccioli. Moments later, the Bold converted on their second opportunity from the penalty-spot. Carleton fought valiantly in injury-time with a chance falling to Mandela Singh-Sharpe (Ottawa, Ont.), but his shot was blocked as the Ravens ran out of time.
The Bold will move on to the semi-finals to face the Waterloo Warriors who upset the top-ranked team in U SPORTS the York Lions 3-1 in their quarterfinal matchup. The Warriors and Bold join the McMaster Marauders and Nipissing Lakers as the only remaining teams in the 2022 OUA playoffs.
