November 7 at 7:00, the fourth quarter-final game of the women’s CIS soccer championship between the host University of Toronto Varsity Blues and the Atlantic University Sports (AUS) champion Cape Breton Capers ended with a win for the undefeated visitors. The Blues were supported by their home fans, notably the men’s soccer team.
After the first half, the game remained tied at 0-0, with most of the time being spent on the Capers side of the field. Towards the beginning of the match, the Blues seemed to be completely dominating possession time, until Capers forward Shanice Maxwell carried the ball to the U of T end, but lost it with her teammates absent.
AARON TAN/THE VARSITY
After the first 10 minutes of the game, the Capers seem to have warmed up, and started to spent time on the Blues side. After the first half, however, they finished with three unsuccessful shots on goal, one by rookie Tiffany Johnson and two by second year forward Chelsea Currie.
Standing out for the Blues was Alyssa Golin whose footwork managed to get the ball away from the Capers. Despite all of their time on the Capers side, the Blues only managed five shots on net, split between five Blues players.
The half was also an aggressive one between the two teams with each team fouling the other five times. By the end of the game, this number had risen to 12 fouls by the Blues and nine by the Capers.
In the second half, the Capers aggression came out, and for the majority of the time, the ball was in on the home team’s end of the field. This eventually lead to the only goal of the game by Capers star forward Karolyne Blaine in the 70 minute of play.
“Any time she’s on the ball, not matter what the score is, but if she gets on the ball, whether she’s one against one or one against two or three, she can make something happen,” Capers’ head coach Stephen Timmons said of Blaine.
The Blues fought back, keeping the ball almost exclusively on the Capers side for the final 15 minutes of the game, but were unable to score despite their eight shots, compared to the Capers only, but decisive, shot. In the 88 minute, the Blues crowded around the Capers’ net and managed to take numerous shots, but the Cape Breton defense kept the ball out of their net.
“I can say with 100 per cent certainty that I’ve never been more proud of a team than I am tonight, the result notwithstanding,” said Blues’ head coach Anthony Capotosto. “I could talk about every single player that was out there today and the performance that they gave, and the passion that they showed for this program was tremendous.”
