WATERLOO, Ont. – The Guelph Gryphons men's soccer team punched their ticket to the OUA quarterfinals thanks to a dominating performance on Wednesday night (Oct. 21) at the University of Waterloo. The Gryphons defeated the Waterloo Warriors by a final score of 4-1 in a Wednesday night matchup at Warrior Field that marked the opening round in the 2026 OUA men's soccer playoffs. The Gryphons will now face the OUA's top seed, and the reigning national champion, York Lions on Saturday night (Oct. 24) in Toronto.
The Gryphons entered Wednesday night's playoff match as the No. 5-seed in the OUA West, and made the short trip to Waterloo to face the No. 4-seeded Warriors. After falling behind 1-0 early on, the Gryphons would dominate the rest of the way, controlling play and creating chance after chance at the offensive end. In the closing moments of the opening half, the Gryphons were able to level the match at 1-1 after some nice link up play between Gryphons right back,
Antoine DeCoteau, and third-year winger
Ethan Fraser. Fraser's shot from in close deflected off Waterloo defender Calum Heimbecker and in, knotting things at 1-1 after the opening 45 minutes of play.
In the second half, the Gryphons would take the lead in the 53rd minute on a clever set piece from the training ground. With the Warriors anticipating a cross to be swung in by
Ambrose Tinmouth, the Gryphons standout senior would instead carefully measure a ball along the turf through traffic, with OUA All-Star centre back
Peter Bandula the man on the spot to tap it in from close range to give Guelph a 2-1 lead. For Bandula, a fourth-year standout from Georgetown, Ontario, it marked the latest goal in what has been an incredible run for the defender, who has now scored in three consecutive matches for the Gryphons.
From there, the Gryphons would put the match out of reach thanks to a pair of stunning goals from fifth-year attacker,
Ambrose Tinmouth. In the 66th minute, the 22-year-old from Comox, B.C. would cut in onto his right foot, and curl a perfectly placed shot into the top corner to put Guelph up 3-1. Tinmouth was not done there, as in the 88th minute, he would score his second of the match, this time on a blistering left-footed shot from 20-yards out which soared just under the cross bar to give Guelph a 4-1 lead.
The Gryphons now move on to the OUA quarterfinal stage for the second time in the past three seasons, and will now face the No. 2-ranked team in the country in the York Lions. York, the reigning national champions, finished first in the OUA West division standings and earned a bye through to the quarterfinals. The Gryphons and Lions last met in the OUA playoffs in 2024, where York edged Guelph in penalties to advance. Saturday night's OUA quarterfinal matchup will take place under the lights at York Lions Stadium, with kickoff set for 8:30pm. The game can also be seen live online at
www.oua.tv.
