CCAA Men's Soccer: Semi-finals Recap

Match 8: Douglas College Royals 1, St. Clair Saints 0

In the final match of the night, the host St. Clair Saints faced the Douglas College Royals with both looking to meet the Conestoga Condors in the gold medal match.

Neither team could gain an edge early on but that all changed in the 20^th minute. Douglas played the ball into the Saints, sneaking it past the goalkeeper toward the goal, but a Saint Clair defender kept it from crossing the line. Douglas corralled the attempted clear and immediately played the ball back toward the Saint's penalty mark, where Dominik Hajdecki was waiting to slot the ball home. The Saints countered with some offensive pressure of their own but entered the half trailing the Royals 1-0.

St. Clair came out firing to start the second, narrowly missing a solid opportunity within the six just minutes into the second half. As the time ticked down the Saints produced several more chances including a solid crack from Massimo Pollard that rang off the crossbar. Despite seven minutes of extra time, St. Clair was unable to pull even and moves to the Bronze side of the bracket while Douglas advances to the Gold Medal match.

The 4imprint Canada Player of the game: Behrad Hajimohammadi, Douglas and Paolo Davia, St. Clair

Match 7: Conestoga Condors 2, Aigles d'Ahuntsic 1

This highly anticipated semi-final match featured the OCAA (Ontario) Champions, the Conestoga Condors, versus the champions of the RSEQ (Quebec), the Aigles d'Ahuntsic.

Both teams started out conservatively, not wanting to make any mistakes, before increasing their intensity and opportunities as the half progressed. Despite some quality chances for both teams the game remained scoreless at the half.

Twenty minutes into the second, Conestoga's Josip-Pavle Stojanovic opened the scoring, putting the Condors up 1-0. With ten minutes left to play, a pair of yellow cards resulted in a red, putting Les Aigles down to 10 men, narrowing their hopes for a comeback. However, with two minutes remaining, Mario Sarbev of Ahuntsic levelled the match and seemingly sending it into extra frames.

It wouldn't come to that though as moments later the Condors were awarded a penalty kick during the added stoppage time. In a heart stopping finish, Malachi Ramsay stepped up to the penalty spot with the hopes and dreams of sending his team to the CCAA National finals. Ramsay placed his shot, and despite Ahuntsic's goalkeeper guessing right and getting a piece of the kick, the ball found the back of the net sending Conestoga to the Championship match.

The 4imprint Canada Player of the game: Gamtessa Berehe, Conestoga and Mohammed Baalbaki, Ahuntsic.

Match 6: Keyano Huskies 2, Brandon Bobcats 0

In the second match of the day the Keyano Huskies took on the Brandon Bobcats for a spot in the bronze medal semifinal. The Huskies came out flying, trying to capitalize on some early chances. However, the Bobcats were standing tall and not folding. The teams went into the half scoreless, with Keyano having more quality chances but Brandon putting up a good fight.

Keyano's James Bartha ended the scoreless drought, putting his team up in the 48^th minute. The Huskies continued to apply pressure early in the second and in the 64^th minute they were rewarded with a second goal, this one from Elshafi Ishaq. Despite the Bobcats best efforts to mount a comeback, they were unable to solve the Huskies defense.

The 4imprint Canada Player of the game: GK Matheus Souza and #20 Hafid Arellano

Match 5:  VIU Mariners 3, UKC Blue Devils 2

The first match of the day featured the VIU Mariners and UKC Blue Devils looking to punch their ticket to the bronze medal semifinal match. It was a back-and-forth match that saw five goals scored in total and both teams holding the lead at certain points.

Ian Kerr of the Blue Devils opened the scoring 14 minutes in but before the half, VIU's Malcolm Carey tied it up to bring both teams into the break at 1-1. Roughly 10 minutes into the second half, Michael Zinck put UKC back in the lead, but VIU quickly responded again when Vasilios Bagiopoulos slotted one to bring the game level.

After quality chances for both teams Bagiopoulos hit a well struck ball past the diving UKC goalkeeper for his second of the match and what proved to be the deciding goal.

The 4imprint Canada Player of the game: Vasilios Bagiopoulos, VIU and Michael Zinck, UKC.

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