MSOC | Voyageurs Come Up Short in Final Match of Riley Gallo Cup

The Laurentian Voyageurs Men's Soccer Team took to the field in the final leg of their home and home weekend against Highway 17 rivals the Nipissing Lakers on Sunday afternoon at The Rock.

After drawing match one of the weekend, the Voyageurs came home looking to continue their three game unbeaten streak. Unlike the first game of the weekend, which didn't see a single shot on target until the 30th minute, the Voyageurs managed to create a few key chances in the first ten minutes. Two of those chances fell the way of midfielder Nico Patenaude in the second minute and to Jeremie Bourbonnais in the seventh. Both were turned aside by the Nipissing goalkeeper but it was a promising start to the day for Laurentian. However, a strong half from the Voyageurs couldn't be capitalized on as the half-time score read the same as the start of the match at 0-0.

The second half was more the same as all weekend these two teams were extremely tightly matched. As it wore on, the game continued to show signs that if a team was going to be able to break the deadlock, one goal was going to be enough to win it. Laurentian's corner count was beginning to pile up and, with around 15 minutes to go, it was the Vees who looked to be the more likely of the two sides to go on and win it. However, in the 82nd minute a cross found its way to the feet of Caelen Walraven who would go on to score in back to back games against the Voyageurs, giving the Lakers a 1-0 lead which they would never give up.

The loss breaks Laurentian's 3 game unbeaten run and puts their record now at 1 win 2 draws and 2 losses on the season. Their season continues next weekend when they welcome the Trent Excalibur and Ontario Tech Ridgebacks to the Nickel City. Both games on Saturday and Sunday are set to kick off at 2:15 at The Rock.

- Andrew Lemieux