Sea-hawks operating on a wing and a prayer
Memorial men look to beat visiting Dal twice, gain a playoff berth on a last-chance weekend
The Memorial Sea-hawks will need some help in order to make it to the playoffs in Atlantic University Sports men’s soccer.
But first, they’ll have to help themselves.
The Sea-hawks (3-5-2) enter the final weekend of the regular season three points out of sixth place and the final playoff spot in the AUS conference, held by the UPEI Panthers (4-5-2).
Memorial closes out its schedule with games against the Dalhousie Tigers (5-2-3) this evening (7:15 p.m.) and Saturday (3:15 p.m.) at King George V Park in St. John’s, and will need at least a win and tie to have any hope of making it to the AUS championship tournament beginning Oct. 31 in Sydney, N.S.
In all likelihood, the Seahawks will require two wins and the six points that come with them … and even then, it might not be enough.
That’s because UPEI has the advantage when it comes to any necessary tiebreaker, since it beat Memorial 3-0 in its lone head-to-head meeting in September.
Making the situation even more dire for Memorial is the fact the Panthers’ one remaining game, Saturday in Charlottetown, P.E.I., is against the last-place winless Mount Allison Mounties.
Here are the possible scenarios:
• If Memorial loses tonight, it will be knocked out of the playoff picture.
• If Mt. A defeats UPEI Saturday, then the Sea-hawks could make the playoffs with a win and tie versus Dal.
• If the Panthers and Mounties play to a tie, then Memorial would require two wins to be playoff-eligible.
• If UPEI defeats Mount Allison, then the Sea-hawks will be out of luck no matter what they do against the Tigers because of the tiebreaker situation.
There is a very remote chance Memorial could move up two places in the standings since they trail the fifth-place Saint Mary’s Huskies by five points.
And there’s also another team at the edge of the picture. That’s the Universite de Moncton, which is in eighth place, four points behind Mount Allison.
With two games remaining, the Blue Eagles could conceivably be the ones to claim sixth place, but to do so, would need for things to fall almost perfectly their favour when it came to Dal and UPEI
It might be difficult for the Sea-hawk men not to look back to last weekend when they lost two road games in Nova Scotia, both by shutouts. In particular, there would be wincing over a 1-0 defeat at the hands of the Cape Breton Capers on a goal with less than two minutes remaining in regulation. Had Memorial been able to secure a tie against the Capers, the one point they would have earned would have been nice to have heading into this weekend.
But that was then. This is now.
Memorial head coach Jake Stanford did suggest his team deserves to be higher in the standings, but added the Seahawks are prepared to deal with the reality of their current situation.
“Obviously, these games are crucial and we need two wins,” said Stanford. “Our team has been very resilient all year, so I expect them to be ready to perform.”
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The Memorial women’s soccer team has already clinched a playoff berth, but there is still something on the line for the Lady Hawks (4-3-3) as they host the Tigers this afternoon (5 p.m.) and Saturday (1 p.m.) at KGV.
With a couple of wins over Dalhousie (6-3-1), Memorial would move up to at least fifth place and perhaps as high as fourth, if UNB loses its final game.
What’s more, as Sea-hawks head coach Mike Power notes, Dal is a possibility for Memorial’s first-round playoff opponent.
“So how we match up will be important,” said Power. “We will be looking to learn as much as we can about the Tigers and we have an opportunity to gain some confidence and momentum."