The first victory of the season took longer than expected for the St. Albert Impact Rangers.
After four ties and one loss, the premier men's soccer team battled back from a 2-1 halftime deficit to beat Polonia 5-2 Thursday at Riel Park.
"We needed that badly. Too many draws and too many games we could've won and we didn't," said striker Mark McQuaid. "We need to go into every game thinking we're going to win otherwise there is no point in showing up. We need to come in as winners and come out as winners."
The Irish gazelle tallied twice and his sidekick, Emmett Keenan, scored three times. The offensive outburst by the Rangers was one goal short of tying the team's total of six in five previous matches. Two of the ties were scoreless affairs.
"Thankfully our offence came up big today and did it for us. Defence has been great all year, we just haven't been scoring goals, so that's were the problem lies," McQuaid said.
With five matches left in the Edmonton District Soccer Association fixtures the Rangers must put some wins together in order to secure their spot in premier next season. The long-time premier team was relegated to division one after the 2008 campaign and was promoted back into premier after finishing first overall in division 1A last year.
"It was only a matter of time before we won a game. We've been unlucky with a few of the draws we've had," Keenan said. "A lot of people think that we're not going to do anything in premier and we're going to drop down again but this win tonight will definitely tell them we're up here to stay with the big guys."
McQuaid stressed the team's record wasn't indicative of the how the Rangers have performed in premier.
"We possibly could've won every game but it just hasn't gone our way. Today, thankfully, it came our way. Hopefully we can push on from here and get in the top six," he said. "It's been frustrating, very testing. Four draws at the start of the season is hard for any team to overcome. We've been dropping our heads too early in games and feeling that we're out of it, even that game we thought we could've won last week [4-1 loss to first-place Karpaty in Sherwood Park] when we let a few goals in, cheap ones too."
The high number of ties to kick off the season is a sore point with the Rangers.
"We don't want any more draws. We want to win," Keenan said. "When we score a goal we tend to sit back and we think that's all we need to do. We think we're safe and then we get caught and they put one in and then our heads our down. We sit back and put it on cruise and we should be pressing like we did tonight."
Early deficit
The Rangers got off to a rocky start as Polonia (2-2-1) scored in tight on backup keeper Jason Martyn in the 16th minute to cap off a two-on-one rush. Martyn was deep in the crease on the left side facing the attacker when the ball was passed in front of the net to a wide-open player for an easy goal.
McQuaid replied in the 21st minute on a play that looked offside. After a quick release by the second-year Ranger, a long discussion followed involving the referee with the linesman and then with the captains of both teams before it was ruled a goal.
"It was just a tap in from [Ryan Sebastianelli]. He did all the work on the wing," McQuaid said. "It was a bit offside but it was all good."
In the 42nd minute, a defensive lapse in front of Martyn allowed Polonia to regain the lead on a similar play that opened the scoring.
"That was a real bad one we let in. We were really lazy," Keenan said.
As the first half drew to a close Polonia rang shots off the post twice in span of a few seconds.
McQuaid, 27, credited a halftime pep talk by veteran Jimmy Casper that rallied the troops.
"Jimmy told us to go out and do what we had to do. We didn't play near to our potential in the first half. We had to go out and prove ourselves and thankfully that's what happened," he said. "Our attitude changed in the second half. We showed what we can do, so hopefully we can bring that out in the first half of the next game."
A fired-up Keenan scored right off the bat to even the score.
"Somebody played it out from the right to me and I made a run into the middle of the box. Two of their guys thought they had it but I just tapped it through with my left foot and put it into the bottom left corner. The goalie didn't even see it," he said. "As soon as I put that one in I felt the momentum change. We started to pick up our game. Our goal was to win every 50/50 ball the whole second half and we weren't going to let up."
A few minutes later, Keenan scored a cracker of a goal that left Polonia reeling.
The insurance marker by McQuaid was another thing of beauty as he beat the keeper with some nifty moves and a magical right foot.
"That was a big one to get it in," he said. "I just pounced on a ball outside the box and got around the keeper and put it in."
Keenan, 25, rounded out the scoring with his hat-trick marker and team-leading fifth goal, one more than McQuaid has registered.
"It felt like I had an extra step out on them. When the ball was played to me they couldn't keep up," said the talented striker who honed his craft in the St. Albert Men's Soccer League with Chester City before joining the Rangers three years ago.
It was with heavy hearts the Rangers took to the field after learning Dieter Knobloch, the team's founder and St. Albert soccer icon, had taken a turn for the worst health wise.
"We were playing tonight for Dieter. He's not doing so well. Everyone had Dieter on our minds," Keenan said.
The next game for the Rangers is Monday against the DV Old Boys Green & Gold (3-1) at 7 p.m. at Riel Park.
