Brent Mutis
CapU Blues sports info
It wasn’t the weekend they wanted but it still got them to a place they haven’t been in five years.
The Capilano Blues tied the Douglas College Royals 2-2 on Saturday, earning them the point they needed to stay beyond the Royals’s reach in the PACWEST standings. That’s enough to ensure them a spot in the PACWEST provincial tournament, which they last qualified for in 2019.
Sunday’s result was a 2-1 setback at the hands of the first-place Langara College Falcons, so the Blues acquired just one of a possible six points over the weekend which should keep them hungry heading to the final weekend of the regular season and into playoffs.
In the weekend opener Saturday at Douglas, CapU held two separate one-goal leads but couldn’t hang on. Sebastian Cirotto scored the first of the game after a long drive from Andrew Cerqueira put pressure on Royals defender Joseph Goss. Cirotto poked the ball away, gathered it and buried a drive to the left corner of the goal.
Douglas equalized on a penalty kick late in the first half when Luciano Keramen went down after contact in the Blues area. Matteo Falcone took the kick and beat a diving Graydon Sherle in the Blues goal.
Kaden Routley restored the Blues lead in the 68th minute when he drove home a rebound after a Cirotto shot on goal but Douglas replied shortly after with Keramen finishing a nice pass from LJ Milfrise. Sherle was solid late, stopping a header and a golden chance for Milfrise as the seconds ticked down.
On Sunday, it was a Blues home game against Langara but the site was the newly finished turf field at the CapU Squamish campus. The game was scoreless until late in the first half when Langara struck twice in five minutes.
Capilano was able to turn the tables in the second half and had the bulk of possession but couldn’t solve Falcons keeper Ziyan Clark-Ismail until the 90th minute when Cirotto settled a bouncing ball in the area off a Stefano Del Sasso throw-in and blasted home his league-best seventh of the season.
All PACWEST teams get the Thanksgiving weekend off. CapU returns to action Oct. 19 and 20 with a pair of games at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo. The PACWEST provincials are Oct. 26 and 27 at Langara’s Langley park.
