It's the fifth game of the season for the Nipissing Lakers women's and men's soccer teams, but this is definitely one that has been circled on the calendar since they announced the schedule.

The Lakers begin the 2017-18 chapter of the 705 Challenge Cup Saturday in Sudbury against the Laurentian Voyageurs, marking the first of 14 games against their northern rivals.

The two games on Saturday also mark the first two legs of the Riley Gallo Cup, a long-standing tradition between the two schools that continues as part of the 705 Challenge Cup.

The Lakers women's soccer team enters the showdown with a 1-2-1 record, good for four points and one better than Laurentian so far this season.

The Vees, who are 1-3-0, are coming off a victory, however, while Nipissing was tagged with a loss in their last game.

On the men's side, both Nipissing and Laurentian sit with 1-3-0 records.

While it's early in the year, both the women's and men's games are key and could help build a strong campaign.

Andrea Young, the league's second leading goal scorer, has been on a tear for the Lakers women's team.

She has four goals already this season, including both against Queens last Sunday. She's also tied for second in the league with for points, one behind the leader.

Behind Young's four tallies, the Lakers have five players with goals, including rookies Taylor Barkley and Madison Logan scoring their first OUA goals.

Erika Brennan also buried her first career goal earlier this year.

Veterans Delaney Borsato and Sarah Scouten have the other Nipissing goals.

In net, Mykaela Volpe has been strong, while Hana Gazdik and Jess Moran have supplied quality minutes to the team.

On the men's side, Nipissing has managed four goals through four games, from four different goal scorers.

Veterans Andy Bago, Nathan Zak and William Tsilkas have all found the back of the net, while rookie Jack Collins recorded his first career goal in a win over RMC last weekend.

Both goalkeepers, Nicholas Cirullo and Achuthan Shanmugaratnam have been solid in net for the Lakers.

After Saturday's game at Laurentian, the women's soccer team will play five straight at home, while the men have four for their next five in North Bay.

Game times are set for noon and 2:15pm in Sudbury.
 
 
705 Challenge Cup
Sept. 9 - Women's Soccer @ Laurentian
Sept. 9 - Men's Soccer @ Laurentian
Sept. 27 – Women's Soccer vs. Laurentian
Sept. 27 – Men's Soccer vs. Laurentian
Oct. 28 – Women's Hockey @ Laurentian
Nov. 11 – Men's Hockey vs. Laurentian
Jan. 6 – Men's Hockey vs. Laurentian
Jan. 27 – Women's Hockey vs. Laurentian
Jan. 31 – Women's Basketball vs. Laurentian
Jan. 31 – Men's Basketball vs. Laurentian
Feb. 2 – Men's Hockey @ Laurentian
Feb. 3 – Men's Hockey vs. Laurentian
Feb. 3 – Women's Basketball @ Laurentian
Feb. 3 Men's Basketball @ Laurentian
 
The '705 Challenge Cup' will be comprised of all 14 regular season games between the Lakers and the Voyageurs in the sports of men's and women's basketball, hockey and soccer.  The soccer teams will still compete for the coveted 'Riley Gallo Cup' but those games will also be included in the overall scoring for the '705 Challenge Cup'.
 
The scoring each year for the new hardware will consist of the overall win-loss record between the 2 institutions.  In the event of a tie in the head-to-head record, plus-minus will be used as a tie-breaker.  One caveat to the plus-minus calculation will be dividing the point differential of the basketball games by 10.  This will ensure that, for example, a potential 20 point win by one team only counts as +/- 2 and does not skew the overall calculation.