CIS men's soccer Sunday roundup: Saint Mary's, Montreal, McMaster and Alberta claim conference titles

Photo credit Cape Breton Athletics

Saint Mary's 6, UPEI 0 Final
AUS final

SYDNEY, NS - The Saint Mary's Huskies are once again champions of the AUS. The men's soccer Huskies rode the offensive firepower of Elvir Gigolaj to their second consecutive AUS men's soccer championship, defeating the University of Prince Edward Island Panthers 6-0 at the Cape Breton Health Recreation Complex in Sydney.

Second-year striker Gigolaj scored four times for the sixth seeded Huskies, who dominated the No. 2 seed Panthers throughout the match.

Derek Gaudet and Ian Coke added the other two goals for Saint Mary's, who took the long route to the title, knocking off No.3 seed StFX 1-0 in a shootout in Friday's quarter-finals before downing the host and top eeded Cape Breton University Capers 4-1 in Saturday's semifinal.

Both the Huskies and the regular season champion Capers will advance to next weeke's CIS national championship in Victoria, BC.

Source: Cape Breton Sports Info

York 2, Carleton 0 Final
OUA bronze

OTTAWA - The York University Lions women's hockey team closed out its four-game road trip with a 5-2 loss to the Windsor Lancers Saturday afternoon (Nov. 5) at South Windsor Arena.

Kiri Langford (Collingwood, Ont.) and Andrea Joyce (Mississauga, Ont.) were the goal scorers for the Lions.

Sydney McMurter (Orillia, Ont.) got her fourth start in goal and made 38 saves in the loss. Her counterpart, Julia Ouroumis (Pickering, Ont.), had a quieter afternoon in which she had to make just 18 saves to pick up her third win of the season.

The Lions, after starting the season 4-1-0, are now 4-5-0 after going 0-4 on their first road trip of the season. They now sit in a four-way tie for sixth in the OUA with the Western Mustangs, Waterloo Warriors and UOIT Ridgebacks, all of whom also have eight points this season.

It didn't take long for the Lancers to find the scoresheet. Just 19 seconds into the first period, Bree Polci (London, Ont.) sped down the ice off the opening faceoff and buried her third goal of the season to give the Lancers a very early 1-0 lead.

That is how things would remain until the second period, when both teams exploded for four combined goals.

Lancers forward Candace Rapchak (Stoney Point, Ont.) struck first at the 5:53 mark of the period, burying her second goal of the season and giving the Lancers a 2-0 lead. Rapchak is sixth in league scoring with 13 points this season.

Langford would respond with her first goal of the season less than two minutes later to cut the Lancers' lead to just 2-1. Assisting on the goal were Sarai Whitty (Kingston, Ont.), who was playing in her first game with the Lions this season, and Kristen Barbara (Mount Hope, Ont.).

Seven minutes later, however, Adalena Tridico (Windsor, Ont.) would restore the Lancers' two-goal lead with a timely power play goal.

Joyce trimmed the Lancers' lead to 3-2 just over a minute later with her fourth goal of the season, assisted by Kimberley Ramcharan (Mississauga, Ont.) and Barbara, but that is as close as the Lions would get.

In the third period, the Lancers pulled away with two late goals from Manon Davis (Sudbury, Ont.) and Courtney Spoors (Kingsville, Ont.), giving the Lancers a 5-2 lead and spoiling any chance of a Lions comeback.

The Lions will look to return to the win column on Friday (Nov. 11) when they host the last place Ryerson Rams (1-8-0) at Canlan Ice Sports. Puck drops at 7pm.

Source: Cody Powell, York sport writing assistant

Montreal 3, McGill 2 Final
RSEQ final

McMaster 3, Toronto 1 Final
OUA final

OTTAWA - The McMaster men's soccer team reclaimed the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Championship title Sunday afternoon with a 3-1 defeat of the Toronto Varsity Blues.

Toronto and McMaster met in the 2009 OUA gold-medal match when the Marauders defeated the Blues 1-0 in penalty kicks at Toronto's Varsity Centre. The Blues, who were defending champions coming into today’s game, also won their title with a 1-0 victory in penalty kicks over the York Lions in 2010.

The Marauders controlled the play throughout the first half and opened the scoring in the 20th minute with a goal from second-year striker Paterson Farrell (Oakville, Ont.) off a corner kick.

Blues midfielder Dylan Bams had a solid chance to even the score just before the half. The Fanny Bay, B.C., native caught Marauders goalkeeper Angelo Cavalluzzo (Hamilton, Ont.) out of the net but defender Robert Scholosser came sprinting in to clear the ball out of harms way.

McMaster held a 1-0 lead after the first 45 minutes of action.

The Varsity Blues had trouble penetrating into the Marauders territory early in the second half until the 53rd minute when second-year midfielder Ezequiel Lubocki of Winnipeg sent a shot just over the cross bar from 20 yards out to keep Cavalluzzo on his toes.

The Marauders extended their lead in the 59th minute as rookie midfielder Brandon Gutierrez of Brampton, Ont., jumped on a rebound off the back post to put McMaster up 2-0.

Blues leading scorer Mario Kovacevic of Woodbridge, Ont., cut the lead to one in the 67th minute, sending a shot from 12 yards out into the bottom right corner of the net off a corner kick opportunity.

Kovacevic almost evened the score in the 75th minute. After Geoffrey Borgmann was taken down, the Blues were awarded a free kick in front of the Marauders net. The second-year striker set the ball through traffic but Cavalluzzo dove to make the last-second stop and maintain the one-gaol lead.

Toronto poured on the pressure in the final 10 minutes and despite a few corner kick opportunities, were not able to find the back again.

Farrell would add his second of the game in inury time and the final whistle blew in a 3-1 favour of the Marauders.

The two teams qualified for the 2011 CIS championship at the University of Victoria next week (Nov. 10-13) with their respective semi-final victories on Saturday.

Source: McMaster Sports Info

Victoria 1, Trinity Western 0 Final
Canada West bronze

Alberta 1 , UBC 0 Final
Canada West final

VICTORIA, BC - Marcus Johnstone scored in the 89th minute with a magical goal as the Alberta Golden Bears remained undefeated in Victoria in 2011 with a 1-0 shutout win over the No. 5 nationally ranked UBC Thunderbirds to win the Canada West title at Centennial Stadium.

With the win, the Golden Bears clinch the final spot at CIS men's soccer national championship, which will also be held in Victoria Nov. 10-13. The loss ends the season for UBC, the 2010 national finalist. The 2010 national champion York Lions were also eliminated this weekend in a 4-1 loss to the Toronto Varsity Blues in the OUA semifinal Saturday.

On Sunday in Victoria, Johnstone's blast from 10 feet out eluded UBC's freshman goalkeeper Luke O'Shea of Richmond, B.C., drawing a loud eruption of cheers and jubilation from the Alberta squad.

UBC thought they had scored at the 62nd minute of play, with the referee seemingly allowing advantage. But just as Alberta was committing an own-goal, the official blew his whistle and instead awarded a free-kick on the edge of the box after a late Golden Bears' tackle. The Thunderbirds could not capitalize on the chance and the game remained a scoreless draw.

The Thunderbirds advanced to the conference final after a win over Trinity Western in Saturday's semifinal that needed penalty kicks to determine a winner. The Golden Bears upset the No. 3 nationally ranked UVic Vikes with a 2-1 win in the other semifinal on Saturday.

Alberta was abie to capitalize on their best scoring opportunity and for the second straight day made their opposition pay with precision.

Source: Victoria Sports Info