McGill Men’s Soccer went into halftime a goal down, was outshot by more than two to one, finished the night with 10 men, and still found a way through to victory. The second-seeded Redbirds overturned an early deficit and went on to beat the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) Patriotes 2-1 in the Reseau du sport étudiant du Quebec (RSEQ) men’s soccer semifinal on Oct. 29 at Percival Molson Stadium.
The win carries the Redbirds into the Nov. 5 conference championship for the first time since 2024, with a berth in the U SPORTS Final Eight championships—hosted from Nov. 12 to 15 in Victoria, B.C.—on the line.
For much of the first half of the semifinal, it did not look like McGill’s night. UQTR controlled the run of play, pressed with an intensity the Redbirds struggled to match, and broke through at the 22-minute mark when Patriotes attacker Yanis Abaiche finished for a 1-0 lead. UQTR almost doubled that margin in the 32nd minute when a header shook the crossbar, and they finished the match with a dominating 25-12 lead over McGill in shots overall.
Redbirds forward Maher Fares, U3 Management, described the mood in the locker room after a poor first half performance in an interview with The Tribune.
“To be honest, that was probably one of our worst halves,” he said. “We were kind of shocked by the intensity of the first 45 minutes. But we kept our heads up and told ourselves we had 45 minutes [left] to give it [our] all.”
A shift came almost immediately after the second half began. Barely two minutes in, Fares jumped at a chance to pull McGill even at 1-1, a goal he says he will remember for years to come.
“It felt crazy. Probably the biggest goal of my career,” Fares said. “It’s my last year, so [scoring] here at home, in front of family and friends, at such a crucial moment, is probably the best feeling I could ever get.”
The equalizer turned the match on its head. McGill took the lead in the 59th minute when Nicholas Minchillo, the newly named RSEQ rookie of the year, buried a crucial penalty to bring the score to 2-1. UQTR grasped for opportunity, but fifth-year goalkeeper Ludovyck Ciociola and the back line stood firm, denying the Patriotes in the match’s final minutes. Ciociola blocked 13 shots, eight of which came after halftime, to protect McGill’s advantage. Minchillo, Ciociola, and captain defenceman Stuart Klenner have since been named RSEQ All-Star first team members.
Yacine Ihaddadene, U0 Arts, pointed to the back line as the throughline of McGill’s season.
“Everyone plays together and gives 100 per cent every single time. We’re like a family,” he said in an interview with The Tribune. “You can see it in [our] results. We didn’t concede many goals this season, and we [have] the best defence.”
That identity, he said, is what McGill will lean on in the RSEQ conference championship.
“We have to defend well. We can’t concede the first goal. We have to play together, defend together, and score first,” Ihaddadene emphasized.
Head Coach Marc Mounicot, who was named RSEQ coach of the year on Oct. 29, traced the shift in the Redbirds’ momentum to the halftime reset.
“The biggest thing was a different mindset in the dressing room at halftime [….] Key substitutions, and the first goal coming right after that, gave us confidence again,” he shared in an interview with The Tribune.“We didn’t play especially well today [….] But this year was all about character and momentum. It’s a young team, starting six or seven freshmen. They’re full of enthusiasm, and they have quality. But today, they showed character.”
McGill now sets its sights on the RSEQ Championship Final at Molson Stadium on Nov. 5 against the Université Laval Rouge et Or. It is the Redbirds’ first final since a 2-1 loss to the Université de Montréal Carabins in 2024, and the team will be tenacious in its hunt for glory this week.