LONDON, Ont. – The Western Mustangs men's soccer team took to Huron Flats Fields for their first matchup on the new pitch, dropping a hard fought 2-1 contest to the CIS No. 1 York Lions on Friday night.
 
"We played a lot better today, we had a couple different guys in the line-up so that helped us out. I was pleased with the performance," said Mustangs head coach Rock Basacco.

The Mustangs and the Lions have quite the rivalry already this season as the Lions defeated the Mustangs 5-1 in their first meeting earlier this month. It was clear that the Mustangs were looking to give the Lions some strong competition in tonight's game, and prove that they can battle with a No. 1 ranked team. After tonight's contest the Mustangs hold a 3-3-2 record in the OUA West Division, while the Lions remain their hold atop the OUA with at 8-1-0.

The game opened with both teams battling aggressively for the possession of the ball and to control the play. Lions goaltender Sotiri Varlokostas saved two Mustangs goals in the first half of the action, while Mustangs goaltender Adam Majer stopped three shots fired off by the Lions. At the 19th minute of play the Lions received a penalty in the 18-yard box which set Mustangs Jovan Ivanovich up to score the first goal of the game, creating a 1-0 lead for the purple and white. However, the Mustangs were not ahead for long as the Lions rallied back just six minutes later with a goal from Johnathan Lao. Although both teams fought hard to try and secure an advantage on the scoreboard, the match headed into the break with a score of 1-1.

The second half saw tensions beginning to rise between the two teams. Possession pinballed between the both sides of the field for a large portion of the action, before the Lions Matt Stinson netted York's second goal of the game at the 62 minute mark, to give the Lions a 2-1 lead. With emotions running high, and tempers boiling over the dying minutes of the game saw an influx of yellow cards by both the Lions and the Mustangs. Despite Western's efforts to try and maneuver past the Lions defence and cut the lead, the clock ran out and the match concluded with a 2-1 victory for York.
 
"Whenever you play an intense game emotions are going to get a little bit high. We've got a pretty good rivalry going with York," Basacco stated. "We still gave up the ball a little too much and we need to work on possession so that we can create some attack [but] I was proud of the way they played today."

The Mustangs are back in action Sunday at 1:00 p.m. as the travel to Oshawa to take on the UOIT Ridgebacks.