After a solid finish to begin the season, Laurier’s extramural soccer team had a rule mishap at Redeemer on Friday that cost them a possible win and a chance to climb up the tournament standings. Instead the Golden Hawks finished with a record of one win, one tie and two losses.

According to co-ed extramural soccer rules, there must always be at least two women on the field at the same time and at most three men, not counting the goalkeeper. Seneca instead had four men and one woman on the pitch, swinging things in their favour, resulting in a loss for Laurier.

The team claimed that because the goalkeeper was a woman that should’ve counted as their second female player, but according to Co-captain Deca Campbell, that’s not the case. “After the game I talked to the convener about it and he said he’d look into it,” she says. “But when he came back he said that the game had already been played so it had to count.”

A very unfortunate result for the co-ed soccer team, as the game should’ve counted as a forfeit and a victory for the Golden Hawks. “That really brought the team down,” Campbell said. “And we had a two-hour break [in between games] so that really affected us.”

Although Laurier lost a lot of momentum because of the call, Co-captain Kamden Holder thought the team looked pretty good. Regardless of the rules, the team still had to go out there and play, and if they could’ve scored some key goals, that would’ve possibly made the loss against Seneca not matter. “Overall we did play well, but we just had a hard time scoring,” says Holder. “We moved really well and did everything we were supposed to do; it just didn’t come for us.”

The Golden Hawks success was a result of key performances coming from multiple players. “Quite a few players had their best games yet,” Campbell says. “Maggie Kenny played really well, Daniel Orellana played well.” Goalkeeping was also huge. “Our keeper Tyler [Webb] played well,” Holder added. “He saved our ass a couple of times.”

But scoring goals has been the story of the season so far. Offense has been one of the weaker points for the Golden Hawks. Campbell is impressed and feels confident in the team’s defence and the team chemistry is better. They’ve posted some shutouts in games, so it’s simply putting the ball in the back of the net. But they won’t be able to count on their defence all the time, as even if they only allow a single goal, who scores first and gets that 1-0 can quite possibly be the difference between a win and advancing in a tournament, and a loss. Humber-Lakeshore, winners of multiple tournaments, will be one of the toughest teams for the Golden Hawks, Campbell says.

They will face off against them and the rest of the extramural soccer teams when the Golden Hawks’ co-ed extramural soccer team plays their final tournament at UTM on February 28. Last year they made it to the semi-finals, so expectations are high. Campbell and Holden both believe they can win it all.