SILVER LINING
Cape Breton University Capers take silver at U Sports women’s soccer championship.
In a match that could have gone either way, the Cape Breton Capers came out on the short end of a 1-0 score in the final game of the U Sports national championship.
The Canadian title was ultimately decided by a goal late in the first half, when the Montréal Carabins’ Catherine Proulx pounced on a rebound that she then fired hard into the net behind CBU keeper Lysianne Trottier.
Capers long-time head coach Ness Timmons said his squad left nothing on the pitch when it came to trying to secure an equalizing goal.
“There wasn’t many chances either way, but when they got their opportunity it went in and when we got our opportunities to score it just didn’t go in for us – it was just one of those games and that’s soccer,” said Timmons, who led the Capers to a national title in 2007, when Cape Breton hosted the championship tournament.
“For me, I’m very proud of the girls and how they fought – at halftime we said we’d fight to the end and that’s what we did, we had a couple of balls into the box late in the game, but couldn’t get it in.”
For the record, the Capers won the Atlantic conference’s regular season with an 11-0-1 mark that saw them outscore their opponents 50-4. The CBU women then captured the Atlantic University Sport title banner at the championship tournament in Antigonish to earn Timmons and his side yet another trip to the national championship.
This year’s U Sports finale was hosted by the University of Manitoba and played at a giant indoor soccer facility at the institution’s Fort Garry campus.
In the closely contested final, Cape Breton outshot Montréal 9-8, although the Carabins directed four shots at the Capers net, while CBU managed three shots on goal.
Midfielder Tamara Brown, who has been especially effective through the playoffs, was named the Capers player of the game, while Proulx, the game’s only goal scorer, was the Carabins player of the game.
The championship game marked the final match in a Capers uniform for fifthyear players Trottier, Brown, midfielder Alyssa Armstrong and perennial all-star Robyn Novorolsky.
Timmons acknowledged that while his players are feeling the sting of losing he knows they will come to be proud of the tremendous season they have enjoyed.
“All in all, I know the girls are feeling bad now, but they will realize what a super season they’ve had to go all the way to the national final where they lost to a very strong Montréal team,” he said.
The silver medal-winning Capers earned a berth in the final following a 2-1 win over Victoria in the quarter-final and a 1-0 victory over Western Ontario in the semifinal.