CIS - Column
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York win CIS Championship and cap big year in Ontario soccer
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Posted by
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November 10, 2014 |
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Email
Aaron Nielsen
Twitter
@ENBSports
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The Canadian University Men's Soccer championship was played this weekend in Charlottetown PEI and as expected York University made the final. What wasn't really expected was York's opponent in the Final as the Lions played division rivals McMaster in an all Ontario West finals. The odds had been that York would be playing a team from the west as a BC school have won the last three championships, with Victoria winning in 2011 and UBC winning in 2012 and beating York last year for the 2013 Championship.
Unlike the American version of the National Championship, the CIS doesn't award at-large bids to the tournament finals. Which meant despite UBC being a heavy favorite in the West again this season they lost to Alberta in the Canada West semi-finals, eliminating them from the National Tournament. This meant the National Championship included two unranked schools in Alberta and the host UPEI. Other schools making the Championship were Atlantic champions UNB, Canada West champions Saskatchewan, Quebec Champions UQAM, and Quebec runner ups Montreal.
Ranked number one, York are coached by Carmine Isacco, who has a record at York of 91-12-16 and two previous national championships. He also coached League One Ontario side Vaughan Azzuri to League One Cup championship at BMO field a little over a month ago. Going into the CIS Championship final the Lions were 16-0-2, outscoring their opponents 63-6. Jarek Whiteman led the Lions the season with 15 goals and was nominated for Canadian player of the year in which he lost to Cape Breton's Justin Maheu. Whiteman, Casey D'Mello, and Jonathan Leo were included in the 2014 All-Canadian team. To get to the finals York played Montreal in the first round which they won 1-0 in extra time and also beat UPEI in the semi-finals 1-0 from a goal by Dena Iezady, who also scored in the League One Ontario cup finals verses Sigma FC.
Meanwhile McMaster had a much tougher road to the championship, first beating UNB 2-1 in penalty kicks and then beating Quebec champions UQAM in the semi-finals 3-2 on penalty kicks after being down 0-2. With the Marauders keeper Angelo Cavalluzzo making penalty saves in both games, although it also meant going into the finals, McMaster played 30 more minutes than the Lions. McMaster also lost twice to York prior this season, 2-1 during the regular season and 2-0 in the Ontario Championship, although they did manage a 0-0 tie at York earlier in the season. Overall, McMaster were 11-3-4 on the season going in to the final and they didn't have any All-Canadian award winners, although Cavalluzzo, Nicolas Vecchi, and Ryan Garnett were 1st Team Ontario West all-stars.
The final itself was a close match, with York taking the lead in the 37th minute via a goal by Joey Cicchillo. York's possession controlled most of the game through the play of Dylan Sacramento, Matt Stinson and Leo while the Marauders had no answer to the Lions defense of Henry Moody, De Vante Walker, Daniel Fabrizi and D'Mello. Towards the end of the game, McMaster, who ended with only one shot and that missing the net, got frustrated and Vecchi was red carded with a minute to go after two quick yellow cards. McMaster did have a corner right before the final whistle but to no avail and the York Lions won the 2014 CIS National Championship.
It turned out to be an all Greater Toronto area sweep in postsecondary men's soccer this season with Sheridan college winning the Canadian College National Championship, beating Vancouver Island University in an incredible game 6-5 on penalties after a 4-4 draw in front of a decent home crowd in Oakville. The game included two VIU comebacks including a last minute penalty in the first 90 and a game tying goal in the 115th minute after Sheridan took the lead in extra time. Sheridan were led by Raheem Edwards and David Velastegui goal scoring throughout the season, although both were far behind Ibrah Sanoh, who scored an incredible 26 goals in 12 games this season for Holland College.
These successes further demonstrate the need for leagues like League One Ontario to flourish not only in making post-secondary soccer better but to provide opportunities for players in these regions to be further showcased and given chances to play in leagues like the NASL or MLS. McMaster coach Dino Perri has experience in CSL but most McMaster players did not participate in higher tier men's club soccer this summer. However, they still made it to the National Championship, which also shows the potential growth of League One Ontario expanding to cities like Hamilton.
Overall, it has been a very successful 2014 soccer season in Southern Ontario despite the failures of the local MLS club, although even Toronto FC has something to be proud of with the Academy team winning the inaugural League One Ontario championship and beating Quebec side CS Longueuil in the Canadian Divison III Inter Prov Champions Cup. This included a 4-0 win in Quebec led again by a strong game by Dylan Sacramento who added to his ever growing trophy cabinet. Hopefully this success is a sign to come not only locally but as the game continues to grow also across the country.
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