Queen’s Golden Gaels withstood a second-half rally by the visiting Trent Excalibur Sunday to post a 4-2 Ontario University Athletics men’s soccer victory at Miklas-McCarney Field.

For the Gaels, who have lost just one game this year, the victory was the fifth in a row, and it lifts Queen’s into fourth place in the East division, just three points behind Ryerson, which has played one more game. It came a day after the Gaels posted a 1-0 home-field win over the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks.

In the Sunday match, the Gaels scored after just three minutes of play, as Jacob Schroeter scored in his fourth-straight game. Neither team scored after that until Jamie Barraclough banked a goal into the Trent net off the far goal post in the early moments of the second half, and Queen’s took the lead to 3-0 when Andrew Martin scored unassisted in the games 56th minute.

At that point, the winless Excalibur came to life, with goals by Marlon Adams and Jaycob Bond less than seven minutes apart, but Briam Jimenez-Lopez of Queen’s scored his first goal of the season in the game’s final minute to seal the victory.

“We’re starting to gel a bit better now,” Gaels coach Christian Hoefler said. “There’s progressively more belief in what we’re doing and a lot more understanding of our strengths as a team.”

Schroeter scored the only goal in Saturday’s victory over Tech in the game’s 27th minute, when he finished a cross from Martin. Taylor Reynolds made four saves to post the shutout, his first of the season.

• Also on Saturday, the Royal Military College Paladins gained their first win of the season, when Olivier Couillard scored in the game’s final minute to give RMC a 1-0 win over Trent. Tobin Semple made seven saves for the shutout. On Sunday, a pair of second-half goals lifted Ontario Tech to a 2-0 win over the Paladins, 1-6.

Both Kingston teams travel north next weekend for games at Nipissing and Laurentian on Saturday and Sunday.

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In women’s play, rookie forward Sarah Nixon scored two goals to lift Queen’s to a 4-1 win over Trent, breaking even on a weekend that began with a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Ontario Tech.

The outcomes leave the Gaels, 4-2-3, with 15 points and a share of fourth place with Tech in the East division.

After being shut out the previous day, the Gaels scored twice in the first 15 minutes of their Sunday contest, getting goals from Tara Bartram, her fourth of the year, and Nixon. Trent’s Haley Giles cut the deficit in half with a goal before the end of the first half.

Nixon scored her second goal of the game off a rebound two minutes into the second half and Rachel Radu completed scoring for Queen’s six minutes later.

“We were much better in the second half,” Gaels coach Dave McDowell said. “It was also nice that we were able to go through most of our roster on the weekend. We were able to go pretty deep and they all played well.”

On Saturday, the Gaels saw a three-game winning streak come to an end with the loss to Tech, who used the victory to climb into a tie with Queen’s in the standings. A first-half goal by Alessia Matucci was the only one of the game and Ridgebacks goalkeeper Helen Frampton made it good with a five-save performance.

The Gaels resume play Friday when they host division-leading Ottawa, and they continue their homestand with a match Sunday afternoon against Carleton, a sub-.500 team that nonetheless has pinned one of just two defeats on Queen’s this year.

It’s an important weekend for the Gaels, McDowell said.

“We need to be more insightful in front of the net, in terms of taking chances, but also being a little more ambitious in terms of things that are going to break teams down.”

• Across town, on the shores of Navy Bay, RMC gained its first win of the year Saturday, as Emma Perry’s goal just before full time lifted the Paladins to a 2-1 victory over Trent. Alura Castle opened scoring in the game’s 57th minute for RMC, and Trent answered 21 minutes later with a goal by Katie Steffler, the only one of seven shots to elude Paladins keeper Alexandra Hogg.

On Sunday, Hogg made 18 saves but her teammates could muster just one shot on the visitors’ goal, as Hampton posted her second shutout of the weekend—the fourth in her last five games—and Ontario Tech, 5-2, left town with a 1-0 victory.

The Paladins will play their next game Saturday afternoon at home against Carleton.