OSHAWA, Ont. - The Durham Lords men's soccer team secured their spot in the CCAA men's soccer national championship semifinal on Wednesday with three quick goals, earning a 3-1 win over the No. 10 nationally ranked Douglas Royals.

Hosting the tournament for the first time since 1999, the Lords started strong with lots of pressure on the Royals and went close in the 26^th minute when Colin Reilly (Whitby, Ont.) was denied on the line.

Marcellus Paul (Courtice, Ont.) was next to have a chance, but he went just wide of the target.

Despite the early pressure from the Lords, Douglas opened the scoring in the 37^th minute from a corner when the ball dropped to Quinn Desaulniers who calmly slotted the ball past Durham keeper Kevon Grant (Oshawa, Ont.) to make it 1-0.

The start of the second half is when the goals started flowing for the Lords; Nick Spittle (Ajax, Ont.) got on the end of LeRohne Young's (Oshawa, Ont.) cross and found the bottom right corner to level the game.

Just a minute later Young got a goal of his own when he stayed onside at the back post to make it 2-1 in the 51^st minute. 

The scoring didn't stop there for Durham as substitute Eric Savvas (Pickering, Ont.) did well to start a counter attack, playing Spittle down the right wing who crossed the ball to Paul at the back post who placed the ball into the bottom right corner to make it 3-1 for Durham.

Douglas were mounting the pressure late on looking for a way back into the game and drew close in the 81^st minute when Milan Gandesha's long-range dipping shot was well played by Lords keeper tipping it over the bar.

Gandesha had another chance as the shots were piling up for the Royals, but once again Grant did well to make an acrobatic diving save.

Douglas did everything they could late on to take the game to penalties and even went down to 10 men in the dying moments of the game as Rafael Domingos, but Durham prevailed with the 3-1 win.

Spittle picked it up the Player of the Game award for Durham, while Desaulniers earned the honour for Douglas.

The hosts will now take on the Red Deer Kings on Thursday evening at 5:30 p.m. for a spot in the gold medal game, while Douglas will take on Holland in a bronze quarter-final earlier in the day.

QUICK LOOK AT THE LORDS

Overall Record: 11-3-1 (W-L-D)
Conference Record: 7-1-0
 
Next match: Thursday, Nov. 7 vs. Red Deer Kings • (5:30 p.m. - CCAA Championship - Vaso's Field)

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