By: Dylan Matthias

Welcome to Apocalyptic Night, a special event hosted once a year (or, sometimes, it seems, more often these past few games) at Wickwire Field. Dark clouds. Fell light. Epic archrivals with just a light spattering of impending doom for a Tigers team that were embarrassed 6-1 by SMU last Wednesday. Break out the elven armies and troll hordes–there is Fate at stake tonight, or at least a certain amount of cross-town bragging rights, anyway.

Dal are coming off a decent road trip, 0-0 with a somewhat-underachieving-but nevertheless-tricky UPEI side and 2-1 over a probably-not-that-good-but-not-exactly-easy-to-beat-at-home Mt. Allison squad. SMU did not have anywhere near as good a weekend, drawing Cape Breton and losing to Michal Marousek and St. FX in what was, by all accounts, a match-up that had everything you would expect in an AUS 1-2 game.

The armies are marching in:

SMU: Miller, Bauld, Rajaraman, Kodejs, Cordoba, Gigolaj, Coke, Garonis, Kennedy, Sun, Inglis.

Dalhousie: Ur, Rogers, Dalziel, Weymann, Mannix, Beck, Hagen, Haughn, Hawley, Perrotta, Lewars.

Referee: Sean Langille

1min: Dal kick-off. Immediately, SMU get a corner which Coke will deliver. Ur snags Kennedy’s weak header and Dal clear, playing into a high wind.

5min: Good to see Dalziel starting. He’s been solid this ear and played on the weekend. It’s a big improvement over the tenacious but often out of position Fisher. No Hooey yet, though he’s on the bench.

6min: Dal are beginning to get some possession now. If they give SMU the ball like they did last Wednesday this’ll be a long game.

7min: And Dal do just that, and are lucky to escape a red card, too! Coke sends Kodejs in alone on Ur. The Dal ‘keeper charges out and fouls Kodejs, who was in 1v1 from 40 yards. There is no card.

9min: Now Kodejs and Rogers clash, with lots of aggressive chit-chatting and chest bumping. Still no cards, which is amazing, really.

12min: Hagen goes on a tearing foray into SMU territory, but he eventually loses control of the ball.

14min: Miller makes a mess of a Rogers cross with Perrotta hovering dangerously.

17min: A collection of spandex-covered Dal residence supporters have arrived and are wandering onto the field.

19min: Bauld assaults Beck with a very silly challenge and is cautioned. 85 yards from his own net there, was Bauld.

21min: Hawley bands a 30 yard shot over the net by 10 yards. Now Lewars pops up in the box for a shot, but is called offside before he can let loose.

24min: Hawley, who’s done very little so far, is replaced by Mazurkiewich.

25min: SMU have a free kick. It eventually falls to an offside Inglis.

29min: Cordoba’s not done a lot, but Ian Coke has, stealing the ball from Haughn, I think, before sliding it slightly behind Inglis, who hesitates before losing possession to a brilliant tackle from Weymann.

31min: SMU free kick out wide. Cordoba whips it on goal and the wind tests Ur, who deflects it out for a corner. Dal are lucky he’s still on, of course, but they’ll take his talent here.

34min: Perrotta turns off of Cordoba, who doesn’t exactly do a lot of tracking back afterwards, but is halted in his run by Rajaraman, who made a terrific sliding tackle there.

35min: Beck puts a reaction shot wide and hight. Dal are competiting, though.

37min: And again Dal get away with a possible red card! This time, Dalziel knocks down Cordoba on a clear break. Cordoba was in for sure after beating Mannix and with his pace and ability, that’s a pretty good-looking opportunity but for the blatant foul, for which Dalziel is only cautioned. SMU get very little from the free kick.

42min: Cordoba tracks back, which is a nice change.

44min: Dal have looked a lot more comfortable at home so far against SMU.

45min: Mazurkiewich nips in and looks to have Miller in his pocket before the British ‘keeper slides in to clear very nicely. Lewars then pops up offside again.

45+1min: Milled goes fishing for another cross, but Lewars cant capitalize. For all the plaudits Miller has received, he doesn’t look great on high balls. Same last week, too.

45+2min: Half-time, and this is a tightly-poised game. Quite open, and not too hard to watch despite the spandex-clad res students. We’ll likely see Hutchison in the second half.

46min: Second half begins. Will we see Gigolaj do anything in this half? Maybe?

48min: Dal win a corner, which Haughn will take. Rogers leaps in at the back post and Miller makes a brilliant reaction save at the base of his post.

53min: Slow start to the half.

55min: Mannix puts a shot over towards the corner flag, which Lewars is actually able to keep in play before curling a cross behind for a goal kick.

57min: SMU play the ball around the midfield for awhile before giving it to Mannix so he can create a chance for Inglis. Inglis can’t quite get free for a shot in the box. The incredibly ineffective Gigolaj is yanked for Adam Downie.

60min: Dalziel lunges into Inglis and misses–he would surely have been off on a second yellow is he’d made contact. Inglis now gets space and blasts a shot just past the fingers of Ur and also just past the post.

62min: Corner to SMU, which Kennedy tries to cross in only to win another corner. Cordoba will take this one and Rogers clears upfield.

63min: And Bauld is gone! Red card! On the ensuing break, Lewars speeds down the wing until Bauld, on a yellow card, lunges into a challenge that was never, ever anywhere near the ball and was only going to take out Lewars with considerable force. Lewars goes flying and stays down and Bauld picks up a second very easy yellow card from the ref. Dal have the advantage now, and will not be unhappy to see Pat Nearing’s recruit who decided to transfer to SMU last minute sent off. During all the fuss, Perrotta is removed for Hutchison. Kennedy has words for the ref about the decision–I can’t possibly figure how he could argue either card–and is lucky not to be booked for dissent.

66min: Dal finally take the free kick and Miller punches it to Hagen, who loops his shot over the goal.

67min: Lewars is body-checked off the ball by Kodejs as he tried to beat Miller to it.

69min: Inglis is booked for a bad lunge into Rogers from behind.

72min: Haughn, the defensive-minded centre-mid for Dal, is pulled off for JP Rodriguez, an more attacking-minded midfielder. Hagen tries a 25-yard shot which misses,

75min: Cordoba is set free by Garonis, but Mannix does well to hold him off and clear.

76min: Inglis is sent clear past a pressing Dal back four. Ur, proactive as ever, is off his line to clear.

77min: Inglis lunges for a Cordoba cross in the box after Garonis sent the winger into space. Inglis goes down honking about a penalty but won’t get that one in a million years. Beck is replaced by Ezurike, another attacking sub.

80min: GOAL! (Hutchison 2): Miller makes a mistake coming for a simple through pass and Hutchison gets onto it first, evading the ‘keeper before putting it home very cooly indeed for the 1-0 lead. SMU pull of Coke for Shamout.

82min: SMU come right back with Cordoba, who crosses for Inglis, who somehow fails to bundle it from two yards out. Twice.

85min: Dal are sitting back and letting Zach Bauld’s indiscretion do its work.

87min: Cordoba goes down softly and rolls around for awhile. Downie lets his feelings on an offside call be loudly known with an accompanied punch of air. Lewars comes off for Dalziel.

90min: GOAL! (Hagen 6): Hagen taps home another sitter after some great work by Hutchison, who couldn’t beat his defender for pace. Instead of losing possession, the Tigers’ striker pulled the ball back and rolled it into the path of Hagen, who knocked it in easily.

90+2min: The full-time whistle is blown and Dal come out of this whole thing looking quite good and having exacted some nice revenge for that 6-1 blowout. And they did it all while inflicting a little doom of their own, which fits our theme for tonight perfectly.

Dal travel to St. FX tomorrow and we’ll live-blog that one for you right here. SMU have the rest of the weekend off and face Memorial next week.

That’s all from me tonight.  See you tomorrow around 1pm for the UNB-Memorial women’s game, just ’cause we like watching out of town games, too.

–Dylan Matthias is the incoming sports editor at the Dalhousie Gazette. He runs Dal Soccer Live on the side to provide more in-depth coverage of AUS and ACAA soccer. He has been a Toronto FC fan since Danny Dichio scored the team’s first ever goal. It showed him the magic of soccer.