ACAC Men's Soccer Championship Wrap-up
by ACAC Sports Writer Curtis J. Phillips
Last time an Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) men's soccer team, with a regular season point total of 20 or less, made it to an ACAC provincial gold medal game was in 2011 when the MacEwan Griffins lost to the NAIT Ooks 3-1.
For the 2018 ACAC Men's Soccer Championships, held October 26-28, 2018 at Cohos Commons Field, which is also home of the host school SAIT Trojans, the gold medal finals featured the Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder against the NAIT Ooks.
Like the 2011 Griffiths team, the Thunder had a regular season 20 points with a similar 6 wins 2 losses 2 ties performance.
The Thunder were no strangers to the ACAC gold medal appearances though, with the last kick at the crown coming in 2010 when they lost to the NAIT Ooks 5-0.
This would be the Ooks 12th appearance in a gold medal match since 2000.
To get to the final Sunday, the two Edmonton teams had to outlast four other schools in the presence of The Kings University Eagles, Lethbridge Kodiaks, Red Deer Kings and SAIT Trojans.
In their opening quarterfinal match Friday, the Thunder faced off against the Red Deer Kings.
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| 2018 ACAC Men's Soccer Champions, NAIT Ooks |
Rankings did not matter as the nationally 13th ranked Thunder edged the No. 10 ranked Kings 1-0 on a goal by Mazin Choufi at 79:36.
The 5-foot-7 rookie stole an inside-the-box errant pass from Kings' Thomas Favel, side stepped a defender to go low right side past goalie Jacob Hamilton.
In the semi-final game Saturday versus the Trojans, Thunder net minder Adam Ziccarelli turned away 13 shots and after two overtimes, the game went to penalty kicks with the Thunder claiming a 1-0 victory against the No. 1 nationally ranked Trojans.
According to the ACAC game report "SAIT had two goals disallowed - one on a header from in close that was called offside, and again later on when Dean Northover collided with Ziccarelli, causing him to lose control of the ball."
The report stated that in the penalty kick sessions: "Ziccarelli made a statement early, stopping SAIT's Jordan Alvarez in his attempt, and then ending the game with another stop, this time of Armando Garcia
Concordia scored on each of their attempts on SAIT goalkeeper Marko Illich - getting goals from Mazin Choufi, Armaan Bhinder, Kenny Johnson and Daniel Mujija to secure the win."
Thunder had also been playing a man short with a red card given to midfielder Matthew Hanson at 96:47.
The Ooks, having led the North Division during the regular season with a record of 9 wins 1 tie 65 goals for 5 goals against, received a bye Friday and with a 4-0 semi-final decision against the Lethbridge Kodiaks on Saturday, would head to the final Sunday looking for their 13th ACAC Men's Soccer banner.
Against the Kodiaks It was the Zima and Lima show with Matthew Zima notching two goals (4:03 and 56:40) with Cristian Lima assisting on the first. Lima would add his own score at 6:19 with Zima assisting.
Ooks final goal was credited to Javier Cassie.
Ooks goalie Christopher Ezoua faced only one shot on net while Kodiaks' Kohl Wandyka turned away eight attempts.
"The game was delayed one-a-half hours, due to other games going into penalty kicks," said Ooks head coach Charles O'Toole. "Then it became dark and there was no adequate lighting so you could not see where the ball was at times."
In the gold medal game the Thunder would be minus Hanson who had received a red card in the semi-finals.
They would also be going into the final knowing that they had lost in convincing fashion 4-0 and 10-0 to the Ooks during the regular season.
The postseason would be no different, Ooks cruising to a 5-0 victory with David Doe leading the charge with two goals (44:27, 70:00).
Singles came from Cristian Lima (5:49), Matthew Zima (45:42), Chris Gakona (54:19) and Brayden Miller (87:31).
Thunder goalie Adam Ziccarelli faced a total of 11 shots.
"These guys (Ooks) are very professional about the way they prepare and play and they wanted this," said O'Toole. "They set a goal for themselves and they are achieving what they set out to do.
"We knew that Concordia would be a formidable force. They had just beat the No. 1 team (Trojans) the day before."
This was the Ooks 11th ACAC Men's Soccer Banner.
The NAIT Ooks women's soccer would also go on to gold status at Cohos Commons Field, beating the host Trojans 2-1.
Of the double gold O'Toole said: "Hopefully we will continue to do well and build the program."
Last time an ACAC school captured both the men's and women's soccer crowns was in 2011 with the Ooks claiming bragging rights.
Ooks are now off to the 2018 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association Men's Soccer Championships to be held November 7-10, 2018 in Charlottetown, PEI and hosted by Holland College.
ACAC last medaled at the CCAA Championships with the Keyano Huskies claiming 2016 silver at home in Fort McMurray.
CCAA gold medal status has been rarer with the Ooks in 1987 and 2011 and Mount Royal Cougars grabbing the top spot in 2004, 1997 and 1994.
ACAC Bronze medal game report is from the ACAC website game recap:
The SAIT Trojans men's soccer team are your 2018/19 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) bronze medalists.
The Trojans needed penalty kicks to do it, but they beat the Lethbridge College Kodiaks 3-2 to secure the medal on Sunday morning at SAIT's Cohos Commons Field.
The medal is second-straight bronze for the Trojans, who also achieved the feat last year with a 1-0 win over the Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder.
The game was barely two minutes old before Lethbridge took the lead when the Trojans were called for tripping up a Kodiaks player in the box. Wilson Ntignee took the ensuing penalty kick and made good to put the Trojans in a hole.
SAIT got the equalizer 20 minutes later when Dean Northover tagged a corner kick in mid-air and fired it into the Kodiaks net.
Just before the half, the Trojans went up 2-1 on a play where the Kodiaks believed SAIT was off-side. In the confusion that followed, Trojans midfielder Johnny Hutchinson scored.
The game stayed that way until the 89th minute when Lethbridge's Taylor Laviolette pounced on a rebound off a free kick and tied the contest, shocking the SAIT fans.
Tied after 90 minutes of play, the game immediately went to penalty kicks, where SAIT made good on all five kicks from Krishneil Prakash, Brad Atherton, Dean Northover, Johnny Hutchinson and Nico Aravena.
Lethbridge College replied with goals from Ben Knight and James Britton before Jimmy Bukuru sailed his shot over the net. Camilo Palacio and Tyler Bolen also scored but Bukuru's miss proved too costly.