Blues Advance
Blues playing for gold after dramatic win in semis
Story courtesy of Brent Mutis - Capilano Blues
For the first time since 2018, the Capilano Blues will play for a PACWEST men’s soccer medal after a 3-2 win on penalty kicks over the Douglas College Royals in Saturday’s semifinal.
On a wet evening at the CapU Squamish turf field, the Blues and Royals locked horns for the second straight year in the PACWEST semis and Capilano got the upper hand early on with
Tommy Millar delivering a beautiful curling free kick inside the far post to stake his side to a 1-0 lead.
The Royals replied in the 20th minute with Ayman Sahmuddeen gathering a feed from Behrad Hajimohammadi and firing a low drive that Blues keeper Graydon Sherle got a piece of but not enough to keep it out.
Douglas continued the pressure and had a clear edge in corner kicks over the first 45 minutes but it was a successful free kick that put them up a goal just before the break. Matteo Falcone executed a flawless set piece that found the upper left corner past Sherle’s outstretched hands.
Capilano held their ground through the early stages of the second half, keeping the Royals within striking distance and they found the equalizer in the 75th minute off the right foot of Sebastian Cirotto who accepted a feed from Zach Gabrys and unleashed a laser from 20 yards out that curled inside the far post.
The remaining 15 minutes of regulation settled nothing so the teams went to extra time and still couldn’t settle the score. Douglas went down a man early in the second extra frame with Sepehr Irvani was assessed his second yellow card of the game.
Capilano wasn’t able to take advantage of their extra player so the game would be settled on penalty kicks.
In kicks, the results went as follows:
Capilano, Zach Gabrys - GOAL
Douglas, Matteo Falcone - Save
Capilano,Stefano Dal Sasso - GOAL
Douglas, Keishean Francois - Miss left
Capilano, Andrew Cerqueira - GOAL
Douglas, Filip Capek - GOAL
Capilano, Aydin Ali - GOAL
The Blues advance to face top-seeded Langara in the PACWEST gold-medal game. Kickoff is 3 p.m.