TORONTO, ON – Perfection has been the theme for the StFX X-Men and X-Women in the 2023 U SPORTS AUS soccer season, and that theme didn’t veer far away on Sunday.
The men’s and women’s teams dramatically captured AUS titles, with head coach Graham Kennedy leading the soccer programs to an AUS double, sending both to their respective U SPORTS National Championships.
For the women, it marked their first AUS banner since 2016, while the men ended a nearly 30-year drought, winning their first title since 1996.
StFX beat valiant eight-man, Cape Breton
The Cape Breton Capers finished the AUS Final with just eight players on the pitch after earning three red cards, yet they only fell 2-0 to the StFX X-Men, who scored at even strength and in the final minute as Cape Breton pushed forward.
Former Cape Breton forward turned StFX transfer Charlie Waters opened the scoring in the eighth minute of play from the penalty spot after being pulled down on a breakaway. Yet, despite the Cape Breton defender stopping an obvious goalscoring opportunity, the match official held back from awarding a booking.Â
The Capers picked up their first of three red cards in the 67th minute when Max Piepgrass shoved Waters to the ground, drawing the referee’s ire for a straight red card. While StFX couldn’t score with a man advantage, they also struggled with two men up after Elijah earned himself a second yellow card for dissent in the 78th minute.Â
Former Atletico Ottawa defender Ze Cunha picked up the final red card in the 86th, drawing a second yellow on a late StFX counter-attack. All before the X-Men added the 2-0 goal in the 89th minute from Myroslav Zastavnyy to seal the result.Â
The StFX X-Men aren’t done in Cape Breton, however, having punched their ticket to the U SPORTS Men’s Soccer Championship, where they will be seeded as one of the top four teams as the conference winner. Meanwhile, the Capers will have to regroup ahead of their quarterfinal matchup, likely as the eighth seed, and a more than likely matchup with the UBC Thunderbirds.
StFX win title with late comeback, stay a perfect 14-0-0
After going a perfect 12-0-0 in the regular season and swiftly navigating their semifinal with a 3-1 win over the Memorial Sea-Hawks, the X-Women had the eyes of Canadian university sports fans on them ahead of the AUS Final against the Cape Breton Capers.Â
StFX went on to win the AUS Championship for the first time since 2016, turning a two-goal comeback in the final 20 minutes with strikes from Amanda Smith and Brynn Jurus to win the title. The win also sends them to the U SPORTS Women’s Soccer Championship as the AUS representative in Kingston, Ont.
Tasked with the challenge of shutting down U SPORTS leading scorer Alliyah Rowe, the X-Women double team marked her on most set opportunities and set pieces while allowing her to drift wide with a defender throughout the rest of the game.
Still, the electric Capers attack opened the scoring in the 60th minute. Rowe dropped into an advanced midfield pocket before sending the ball to the right wing for Ally Wilton, who took a blistering strike on a second touch to beat StFX’s Christina Gentile.
From then, the X-Women pressed higher, with Amanda Smith hanging higher up the pitch, toeing the Capers’ high defensive block and the offside line. In the 65th minute, Cheyenne Bower sliced through Cape Breton’s midfield and found Smith on the end of a through ball, allowing the team-leading scorer to circle Cape Breton’s goalkeeper and finish for the tying goal.
With the game teasing extra time in the 80th minute, the X-women found their winning goal on a second ball off a corner kick, finished by Jurus, before seeing out the 2-1 victory.
STFX outshot Capers 10-5, with both keepers coming up with two saves apiece.
The 2023 U SPORTS Men’s and Women’s Soccer Championships run from Nov. 9-12, with the men’s tournament hosted in Sydney, Nova Scotia and the women’s in Kingston, Ontario, at Queen’s University.