The Western Mustangs took on the York Lions in front of a home crowd today at 3:15pm. From the start of the game, the level of intensity of soccer that was being played was very high. There was a lot of back and forth between the two teams with Western putting the pressure on York.
 
Tyler Attardo, number 11 for York, put a shot on goal 10 minutes into the game, but Dino Bontis punched it out. This resulted in a corner kick for York which was caught by Bontis. Possession went back into Western's hands, and they worked to move the ball up the field. 
 
Around 18 minutes into the game, after a corner kick and a lot of activity around the goal, Brandon Miranje was able to find a way through all the players and put a ball in the back of the net. 
 
Tyler Attardo from the Lions would take another shot at Western's goal in the 22^nd minute but it was blocked again by Bontis. York attempted another goal around five minutes later, but it went high. 
 
A free kick for York would see the ball be sent into Western's box but it was sent out by Mahmoud Alqahwaji. Number 24 for the Lions, Pedro Aparicio, crossed a ball into the box but there was no one to receive it and the possession went back to the Mustangs. 
 
Western maintained the pressure on York right until the last minute of the first half with Alex West sending a long ball into the box but was caught by the Lions' goalkeeper. 
 
The score going into half-time was 1-0 to the Mustangs. 
 
Alex West went into a one-on-one with the York Lions' goalkeeper, getting it past him but the ball was sent out of the box by York which resulted in a corner. In the 62^nd minute of the game, Charlie Bontis made the score 2-0 for the Mustangs with an assist from his brother Dino. 
 
Throughout the game Dino Bontis made some incredible saves, not allowing Western to concede any goals to York. 
 
The team came into this game with a loss against York on Friday and so we asked Head Coach Martin Painter what the conversation was like after Friday's game looking ahead to today. Painter explained "I thought on Friday we struggled in certain areas of the game. York's a very good team, obviously. I thought we rebounded well. I think on both sides of the ball, I think defensively we were organized, I thought our goalkeeping was better today, obviously scoring two good goals and having a couple of close calls … our goalkeeper did have to make some good saves today but I thought the team effort was a lot better in every phase."
 
On Dino Bontis' performance, Painter noted that "he had an assist on one of our goals, he made probably four outstanding saves, his distribution was great, his communication was great, handled crosses super well and so in every area of the game that was an outstanding performance from him." 
 
The team are looking ahead to next week where they will take on the Waterloo Warriors. When asked what the team were focusing on going into next week's game, Coach Painter told us that "it's another tough weekend. I have some guys a little bit banged up that we might be getting back so really happy with where the team is at. We needed a performance today, we needed a win today we came out, we got it so – Waterloo is not going to be easy so we're going to be ready for next week."
 
The game against Waterloo will take place on Friday in London, ON at 8:15pm under the lights.