Emily Goodwin | Editor-in-Chief
Featured Image: Jotam Chouhan moments before her game-winning goal against Guelph. | Courtesy of Jojo Yanjiao Qian/York Lions
The Lions women’s and men’s soccer teams have experienced abundant success early in the playoff season.
The women’s team took on the Waterloo Warriors last Wednesday in the first round of playoffs. After a scoreless first half, the Lions rallied to get on the scoreboard in the second half.
Rookie Marissa Castellano scored off a pass from Kiyani Johnson to put the Lions up 1-0. The score would remain this way until the end of the game, with Lions goalkeeper Danzita Indacochea making five saves in the second half to keep the Warriors scoreless.
They then travelled to Guelph on Saturday to take on their biggest rival in the OUA West: the Gryphons. After a scoreless 90 minutes of play, the quarter final game went into overtime.
It was the Lions who would get onto the scoreboard at the end of the first of two overtime periods, with Jotam Chouhan making a huge goal against the Gryphons. The Gryphons could not recover, and the game ended after two hours of play with a score of 1-0 in favour of the Lions.
The women’s team now advances to the final four for the first time in four years. They will welcome the No. 2 nationally-ranked Ottawa Gee-Gees to Alumni Field Friday night.
On the men’s side, they enjoyed some down time thanks to a first round by. They played their first match of the playoff season Sunday night when they hosted the McMaster Marauders. The Lions easily took down the Marauders by a score of 4-1.
The Lions were the first to score, with Christopher Jacovou finding the back of the Marauders’ net 15 minutes into the opening half; assisting him was Cristian Cavallini. Jacovou scored again shortly after, this time with the help of Vaughn Bianchi and Jorgo Nika.
Jacovou stepped up to take a penalty shot at the end of the half where he once again found success and added his third goal of the game.
Merci Yuma added the fourth and final Lions goal in the second half, and Bianchi recorded his second assist of the match. At the end of the game, Dusan Kovacevic of the Marauders was able to get through the Lions defence and net a goal out of reach of goalkeeper Mike Argyrides.
The men’s team will take on the University of Toronto Blues in the semi-finals this coming weekend on home turf.
