GUELPH, Ont. – The opening weekend of the 2019 OUA men's soccer season is in the books. And the Gryphons are off to a hot start. Just 24 hours after earning a hard-fought point on the road against the defending champion York Lions, the Gryphons returned home and picked up a convincing three points with a 4-1 win over the Waterloo Warriors on Sunday afternoon. All four Gryphon goals came in the first half of play, with midfielder
Alexander Zis setting up three of them. Third-year forward
Peter Zehdee (Mississauga, ON) scored twice, while
Jonathon Amoo and
Youssef Zaghloul rounded out the U of G scoring. The Gryphons first-half offensive firepower was even more impressive considering the hosts were without the services of reigning U SPORTS Player of the Year,
Jace Kotsopoulos, who was forced to miss the game after picking up a lower body injury in the team's season opener on Saturday at York.
"We knew that Waterloo were going to play very defensive, so we knew that executing on set pieces would be critical and we were able to dominate in that area," said Gryphons head coach
Keith Mason.
Alex Zis delivers a set-piece vs Waterloo
"Our first two goals both came off corners and that broke their backs a little bit and allowed us to push on. Overall, it was a good performance from our guys."
The Gryphons opened the scoring less than 10 minutes into the game after Peter Zehdee was able to head home off a corner to give the hosts an early 1-0 lead. In the 19th minute, the Gryphons would double their lead when Alex Zis would swing in another corner, with forward Johnny Amoo heading home his first goal of the season to make it a 2-0 lead. After the Warriors were able to trim the deficit to 2-1, Guelph would respond with two goals in the span of three minutes before the half, with Zehdee scoring his second of the game followed by a beautiful curling shot from Youssef Zaghloul to cap the scoring.
The Gryphons will resume league play mid-week with a Wednesday afternoon trip to Laurier to face the Golden Hawks. The Gryphons will then return home for a Friday night matchup versus the Brock Badgers.
