No. 7 Men's Soccer blanks No. 15 Conestoga

By: William Shoukri
Humber Athletics Communications

VAUGHAN - No. 7 Humber men's soccer (2-0-1, 2nd West) beat No. 15 Conestoga (2-2-0, 4th West), the reigning OCAA champs, 2-0 at Ontario Soccer Centre on Wednesday evening. Luca Pinto and Marcus Riviere were the goal scorers for Humber, with Franz Mella and Jacob Ball picking up the assists. 

Match Recap

In a rematch of last year's gold medal final, Humber knew they had to start strong. With both squads having serious turnover, the Hawks were looking towards their veterans to lead the way as both teams lost some key pieces over the offseason. 

Five minutes into the match, the veterans would do precisely that, with Luca Pinto finishing a beautiful free kick from Franz Mella. Pinto would cut through the box and finish the angle with his head, beating the keeper far right. Humber couldn't take its foot off the gas with the Hawks up 1-0 in the early stages. 

Humber would keep the pressure up for the majority of the half, keeping play in the offensive zone and playing a tight midfield game. Conestoga was doing a good job of thwarting Humber's chances once they got into the box, but they had no offence to shift momentum away from Humber. 

It would take 20 minutes for Conestoga to penetrate the box. They got their best chance of the half in the 21st minute, but Humber keeper Peter Shebertsov intercepted the through ball. After the Conestoga opportunity, play would middle around in the midfield for a while, with the Condors backing down and focusing on getting the ball out of their box. Humber would still dominate the possession game, being able to reset on their own end over and over again. Every time it seemed like Conestoga would finally put together a rush, a pass would be intercepted by a perfectly positioned Hawk. 

The half ended with Humber still leading 1-0 after Luca Pinto's fifth-minute goal. The Hawks went into the break leading in all offensive metrics, showing dominance over the reigning OCAA champs. 

When the teams returned from the break, the Condors found some resilience. They controlled the first five minutes of play, pressing the Hawks and looking dangerous. Humber stifled the opportunities and took it the other way. The Hawks actually scored on the ensuing drive, but a foul call had the referee wave off the tally. 

Not to be deterred, Humber proved that the ball doesn't lie. They would take it down the pitch and score again; this time, it would count. An excellent passing play in the 50th minute would leave Jacob Ball on a two-on-one. The extra pass would prove to be the right move, as Ball would cross it through the box for a beautiful tap-in for Marcus Riviere to make it 2-0. 

Conestoga would try to respond a few minutes later with a low strike from in the box, but keeper Peter Shebertsov would make the diving save, keeping Humber up 2-0. Shebertsov would stay busy, making a jumping save less than a minute later on a curving shot from far outside the box. 

That would be the end of the scoring for both teams. Both squads had chances in the match's closing minutes, but Humber would bring home the win, finishing the game 2-0 in front of the home crowd. 

Humber Highlights

• Humber is now 30-2-3 all-time against Conestoga.
• Marcus Riviere has two goals in his first three OCAA matches, leading the Hawks in scoring so far this season.
• The Hawks improved to 1-0-1 against ranked teams this season.
• Humber has started the last 11 seasons 2-0-1 or better. They have not lost one of their opening three matches since 2012.
• This was Peter Shebertsov's first career clean sheet. 

What's next? 

No. 7 Humber will now head on the road to face St Clair (1-2-1, 7th West) on Saturday, September 21. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:00 pm.