ANCASTER, ON – The Redeemer Royals men's soccer team took on the Niagara Knights at David Mantel Field on Tuesday night.
The Knights came into this game unbeaten, holding an impressive record of 4-0-2, coming off a win over the skilled St. Clair Saints.
And Niagara flexed their muscles early in this one. They held much of the possession in the first half, and more specifically in the first 30 minutes. Redeemer was on their heels but didn't give up much.
Denver Packalen and Zach Swackhammer made some exceptional defensive plays, including multiple clears off Niagara corner kicks, that helped keep the Knights off the board.
Goalkeeper Timo Sladakovic was good when called upon, including an absolutely ridiculous diving stop around the 15-minute mark.
But in the 33rd minute, the Knights stars finally broke through off a nice bottom-right corner shot from Matthew Wnukowski for his sixth of the campaign. Five minutes later, Miguel Martin scored his seventh of the season off a turnover.
The Royals would go into halftime trailing 2-0.
However, Redeemer Head Coach Matt Hahn must have had some halftime speech, as the Royals made some adjustments and came out looking like a completely different team. They ran the Knights for the opening ten minutes of the second half. Their aggressive approach caught Niagara off guard and forced multiple turnovers.
Unfortunately for Hahn's squad, the bounces fell the other way. Niagara's Matthew Bogusat would bury a rebound that came off the crossbar from teammate Dominic McIntosh in the 57th minute, and the lead would be extended to three.
The Royals kept up the aggression, and eventually their efforts were paid off. Andrew Beerda was able to send a good ball through to JungYoon Park, who was able to slide it past the Knights goalkeeper to break the clean sheet in the 80th minute.
But any hope of a miracle comeback was quickly silenced when Miguel Martin double-dipped, scoring his second of the night just one minute later.
And that's how the game would end, and the Knights took a 4-1 win back down the QEW.
The Royals wrap up their regular season home schedule on Saturday, October 10th when they host the Mohawk Mountaineers at 3:00pm.
