The UPEI men’s soccer panthers enter into week three of their schedule with a two-game homestand, starting tonight against the Moncton Blue Eagles.
Kickoff is 6:15 p.m.
The Panthers know what to expect from Moncton, a fast, big, skilled team, after playing to a scoreless draw with them in week 1.
“It will be nice to play Moncton again, so soon after our first weekend,” said coach Lewis Page. “It was a great test with a lot of end-to-end play and we’re looking for the same (tonight). We didn’t give them a lot of goal chances in the second half, so I think we have to do that again, be disciplined defensively. We created chances in our last game so we just have to be a little more clinical in front of their net.”
UPEI is coming off a good performance last weekend against always tough UNB. Page had his team working on quick ball movement all week in practice, knowing the fast UPEI pitch will make a difference to a team used to playing on a natural grass surface.
“They were big and we really have to move the ball quicker,” said centre back Cole MacMillan. “We have to play the game we played against UNB. We could have played better in our first three games, but against UNB we kind of put it all together. We played more our style with quick fast movement and I think we can do that against Moncton.”
The St. F.X. X-men invade the UPEI field turf Saturday with kickoff set for 6:15 p.m. Last year at home the Panthers and the X-Men tied 1-1. Look for tonight’s game to be a tight, low-scoring affair, with possibly one goal winning it for either team.
“It will be a different type of game than with Moncton,” said Page. “They will want to posses the ball a lot and play a lot of passes. They’re kind of a technical team. You know if we can defend well again and don’t get caught up chasing the ball, I think we can hurt them a lot on the break.”
