National champs
Cape Breton battles back in overtime before claiming shootout victory in final
The Cape Breton Capers captured the national university men’s soccer championship on Sunday with a 3-2 shootout win over the Montréal Carabins in the Usport final in Kamloops, B.C. It was the first national title for the men’s program. Meanwhile, the women Capers dropped a heartbreaking 1-0 decision to the Carabins in the women’s national championship final that was played in Winnipeg, Man.
In a game of inches, it was a spectacular, fingertip save by a leaping Ben Jackson that gave the Cape Breton Capers their first national university men’s soccer championship.
“It was a great shot and even a better save – Ben Jackson came up massive for us,” said Capers head coach Deano Morley, who was reached by telephone while celebrating with his players in the dressing room of Kamloops’ Hillside Stadium, where the four-day national championship tournament was played
For the Capers, the 3-2 shootout victory over the Montréal Carabins was the perfect ending to an almost perfect campaign in which the team went undefeated, their record only slightly tarnished by an earlyseason draw.
Up against the secondseeded Carabins, the topranked Capers surrendered a goal early in the first extra-time period, before equalizing in the second overtime and then winning the match in the tensionfilled shootout.
Even though Cape Breton was the higher ranked team, the match could very well have been considered a David and Goliath affair. After all, CBU has a student population of just over 3,000, while the Université de Montréal boasts more than 35,000 undergraduates.
But the game only allows for 11 players per side and the Capers went into the match with confidence.
However, their opponents, who lost but once this season, were also flying high and came out with a vengeance as they outshot the Capers 23-7 through the first 90 minutes of play.
But it was Cape Breton that opened the scoring when cocaptain Stuart Heath successfully converted a penalty kick in the 27th minute. The CBU lead lasted until the 69th minute when the Carabins’ Mouad Ouzane finally solved Jackson as he hammered the ball home during a goalmouth scramble.
Deadlocked at 1-1, the match went to overtime. And when Heikel Jarras’ soft chip found the top corner, it appeared the championship was Montréal’s to lose.
But the Capers would not give up, and they went on an aggressive attack late in the first overtime period, but could not net the equalizer.
“We never quit, we never gave in, we dug deeper and deeper and I kept telling the boys that I believed in them, for them to believe in themselves and that good things will come and they did,” said Morley, himself a former Capers player.
They continued to pressure Montréal in the second extra period and were rewarded in the 111th minute when Max Raab scored from 15 yards out to tie the game.
That was the last goal from open play as the match then went to penalty kicks. After the mandatory five shooters aside the match was still deadlocked.
And it stayed that way through the next two pairs of shooters before the Capers eighth penalty kick taker, Daniel Pritchard, scored.
Step up, Mr. Jackson.
The big keeper from Bury, England, then came up with his fantastic save to deny the Carabins and give Cape Breton its first national men’s soccer championship.
“It was a crazy game – I’ve never been in a game like that before,” said Jackson, who preferred to give the credit to his teammates.
“The boys just never quit and never gave up – they were resilient and that’s why we won.”
Cape Breton’s first national university soccer championship came 10 years ago when the women Capers captured the then-CIS championship at home in 2007.