Blues Win Title

Story courtesy of Brent Mutis - Capilano Blues Athletics

The Capilano Blues are champions of the PACWEST after a 2-1 win Sunday afternoon over the No. 1-seed Langara Falcons.

Aydin Ali’s goal in the early going of the second half stood up as the winner for the Blues who hung on for dear life over the game’s final 30 minutes as the Falcons hunted for the equalizer they were ultimately unable to get.

Capilano, the tournament's No. 3 seed, had played 120 minutes plus penalty kicks in Saturday’s semifinal win over Douglas and nearly conceded in the first half when Langara's Maslah Farah took advantage of a Blues miscue in midfield, sped in on goal and got a shot away that Graydon Sherle partially stopped and had to be rescued off the goal line by Eric Town.

The Blues opened the scoring in added time of the first half when Andrew Cerqueira, with his first of the season, headed home a ball that had been flicked on by Tommy Millar off a throw-in.

The Blues went up 2-0 early in the second half, with Millar again doing the setup work. The Capilano captain recovered a ball in the Langara midfield and got it to Ali who took one step to control it and let go with a blast that ricocheted home off a Langara defender.

Capilano didn’t enjoy the multiple-goal cushion for long as within a minute of Ali’s goal, Langara’s Taigo Shimada was sent in on the right side of the Blues area and fired a shot that got a piece of Blues defender Marcos Navarro and deflected past Graydon Sherle to make it a 2-1 game in the 56th minute.

From the 60th minute on, Langara threw all they had at the Blues, whose defences bent but did not break. Sherle was a wall in the Capilano goal, making multiple highlight reel saves throughout the 90 minutes. The Blues keeper was acrobatic from his line and vocal in organizing his teammates on free kicks and corners.

In the game’s final moments, Blues speedy defender Ben Ellsworth was able to gain possession and make a long run to Langara’s far corner flag and Capilano was able to keep the ball there until the final whistle.

The PACWEST title is the first for the Blues men’s side since 2018. They will head to College Champlain-St. Lambert, just outside Montreal, for the CCAA National Championships Nov. 5 to 8.

Players of the Game

Langara – Shunsuke Iwasaki
Capilano – Graydon Sherle

Tournament Awards

Top Goalkeeper – Langara, Ziyan Clark-Ismail
Top Defender – Capilano, Tate Davidson
Top Midfielder – Langara, Shunsuke Iwasaki
Top Forward – Capilano, Tommy Millar
Tournament MVP – Graydon Sherle