The men’s soccer team faced off against UOIT and Trent this weekend as they hit the road to defend their opening weekend success. 

Making their first stop in Oshawa to play against UOIT, the Gaels got on the scoreboard first with a goal at the 19th minute from Tonko Bacelic, assisted by Oliver Coren.

Closing in on the end of the half, Kingston native Andrew Martin scored an unassisted goal that put the Gaels ahead 2-0 going into halftime. 

UOIT responded to the Gaels in the second half, managing to test keeper Kyle Lanzinger with two shots on net in the first ten minutes of the second half. With less than 15 minutes remaining in the game, UOIT closed the gap on the Gaels with a goal to make it 2-1.

However, in stoppage time, Gaels second year midfielder Julian Gailiunas scored the Gaels third and final goal of the game, to secure a tricolor win for Queen’s.

Gailiunas would play a key role the next day as the Gaels faced tougher competition with the Trent Excalibur and came out with a 1-1 tie.

The Excalibur opened the scoring early in the first half, but the Gaels were quick to respond with a goal from Gailiunas, assisted by Tommy Hong, which would be the only goals for the rest of the match. 

Gailiunas was key to the Gaels’ success this weekend with a goal in each of their games this weekend. 

“It’s definitely a confidence booster, I’m not really the biggest goal scorer in general so now that I’ve scored some for the team, and especially back-to-back I feel like I can score a lot more,” Gailiunas said. 

Despite outshooting their opposition, the Gaels weren’t able to pull out another goal to tilt the match in their favour.

“We’re not happy with it, none of the lads are,” Gailiunas said. “We came out flat and also we couldn’t find the goal scoring when we needed it.” 

“They wanted it. They wanted the tie and they were hungrier than us and we couldn’t put it away.” 

Trent’s record currently stands at 1-3-1 this season, whereas the Gael’s record thus far is 3-0-1.  

There was friction between the teams throughout the contest, with a collective 33 fouls committed by both teams. 

However, the tension wasn’t limited to the field. As the game got heated, so did some of the Gaels on their team bench.

“I think we’ve got to be a team. We’ve got to support each other and bring each other up,” Gailiunas said. “There was times in the Trent game when we were putting each other down and that’s not going to improve anything. That’s not going to help, especially from our leaders, our fourth and fifth years, they need to set a good example.”  

Regardless of the team’s frustrations, they remain undefeated going into their mid-week game against RMC this Wednesday.

“We don’t want to look past that,” Gailianus said. 

The Gaels face off against the RMC Paladins this Wednesday and face their rivals, the Carleton Ravens, on Sunday for their first match at the new Richardson Stadium.