The Warriors men's soccer team season ended on Wednesday evening as they lost a tight 2-1 battle to the McMaster Marauders in the first round of OUA west playoffs.
The Warriors controlled much of the game but were on the wrong end of some unfortunate calls and were eliminated from the playoffs under the lights at Ron Joyce Stadium in Hamilton.
After narrowly making the post-season, the Warriors expected to make some noise in the OUA west playoff picture but were halted as McMaster scored the winning goal off of a free kick in the 80th minute.
Waterloo opened the scoring late in the first half (40th minute) as rookie midfielder Arman Grewal (Mississauga, Ont.) notched his second of the season to put the Warriors up 1-0. McMaster responded as defender Anthony Costa (Stoney Creek, Ont.) evened the score in the 58th minute of the second half.
The winning goal would come off the foot of Aaron Boothe (Whitby, Ont.) who made no mistake on the free kick as the Marauders would move ahead and not look back sealing a 2-1 victory.
Waterloo netminder Rob McMillan (Newburgh, Ont.) was spectacular in the loss making nine big stops throughout the game in the losing effort. Marauder keeper Matt Grant (Brampton, Ont.) stopped eight of nine shots faced to pick up the win.
The Marauders now face the no. 7 team in the country, the Western Mustangs in the OUA quarter-finals. The final four is set for the weekend of November 6 and 7 at the home of the highest remaining west seed.
