London ON - This afternoon, the Western Mustangs took on the McMaster Marauders. Despite battling hard for the full 90 minutes, the Mustangs were unable to get on the score sheet and lost 2-0. 

The first half showed an evenly matched game between the two teams.  Although the Marauders constantly pressed hard, making it very difficult for the Mustangs to get out of their own half.   

Tomas Ribiero set up Western's first excellent scoring opportunity with a beautiful cross into the box.   

In the dying seconds of the first half, McMaster forward Jacob Patten scored the game's first goal. His hard shot from outside the box was enough to put his team up 1-0 heading into half time. 

The second half was much more intense. 

Just one minute into the half, Mustangs Goalkeeper Dino Bontis was ejected from the game after committing a foul to stop a breakaway opportunity. This forced Western to play a player short for the remainder of the game.   

Forward Charlie Bontis, Dino's brother, stepped up and played in goal for the Mustangs for the rest of the match.  Charlie did an amazing job and made some great saves. 

Having the player advantage gave the Marauders a lot of momentum as they began to put more pressure on Western's back line. This ultimately resulted in McMaster scoring their second goal of the competition, which secured the visiting team the win.   

"I thought in the first half we were the better team, couple bad mistakes, one in the first half and one at the start of the second half." Said Mustangs head coach Martin Painter.    

"Making those mistakes against a good team and playing with ten men in this heat is tough, there were a lot of positives to take from the game but obviously not the result we wanted."   

The Mustangs will look to rebound from this afternoon's game on Friday (September 20) in Windsor. They will use this week to prepare for their Friday night match against the Lancers. Kickoff will be at 8:15 PM.