2024 AUS Men's Soccer Championship: Host REDS to play for AUS gold following semifinal win over Sea-Hawks

Oct. 25, 2024

(FREDERICTON, NB) For the second day in a row, the No. 6 ranked UNB REDS upset a higher seeded opponent to advance at the Atlantic University Sport Men's Soccer Championship, presented by Bell, at UNB's BMO Centre, in Fredericton. 

The REDS beat the No. 2 seed Memorial Sea-Hawks 3-2. 

The Sea-Hawks were first on the scoreboard. 

In just the sixth minute, Jacob Grant (St. John's, NL) fired a shot from behind a group of players that eluded REDS' keeper Mahmoud Moustafa (Stratford, PE). 

In the 31st minute, UNB's Luke Rosettani (Ottawa, ON) was awarded a free kick in the Sea-Hawks zone. He struck a low shot past Memorial keeper Louis-Charles Vaillancourt (Sherbrooke, QC) and into the bottom corner of the net. 

Ten minutes later, Rosettani put another free kick into the box where Ehab Moustafa (Stratford, PE) headed it past Vaillancourt to put the REDS up 2-1. 

UNB went up 3-1 in the 59th minute 

This time it was Moustafa driving a ball on Vaillancourt, who made the save but gave up a rebound right on to the head of Harrison McGinn (Jewett's Mills, NB), who tipped the ball into a wide-open Memorial net. 

The Sea-Hawks cut the UNB lead to 3-2 in the 74th minute when Grant struck a penalty past Moustafa. 

The REDS finished the AUS regular season in sixth place with a record of 4-4-4 (W-L-T), while the Sea-Hawks went 7-4-1. 

In their two regular season matches, in St. John's, Memorial won one and the teams tied the other. 

The REDS will now face the top seeded STFX X-Men in Sunday's AUS championship game. Kick-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. 

Regardless of the outcome on Sunday, both UNB and the X-Men will represent the AUS at the U SPORTS Men's Soccer Championship that takes place November 7-10, at Ontario Tech University, in Oshawa, Ontario. 

RECAP BY: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics 

PHOTOS BY: James West/for UNB Athletics