Sheppard named National Championship MVP
(SYDNEY, N.S.) – There's no place like home – just ask Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz or, more importantly for their fans and supporters, the Cape Breton University (CBU) men's soccer team.
The latter – in dramatic fashion – captured the 2023 Protocase U SPORTS Men's Soccer Championship, presented by Bell, with a thrilling 1-0 victory over Les Carabins de Montréal at Ness Timmons Field on Sunday afternoon.
In front of a raucous crowd on the Sydney campus – one that chanted and cheered throughout the match, while braving chilly mid-November temperatures in the stands – CBU and Montréal battled to a scoreless draw for most of the first half.
"I think that it was a well-earned victory for us," CBU forward Owen Sheppard (St. John's, NL), the tournament Most Valuable Player, said.
Caper head coach Deano Morley agreed.
"Our players didn't wait for the gold to come to them, they went out and took it," the two-time national champion said.
Before heading to the locker room, in injury time, sophomore midfielder Jacob Spizzirri (Woodbridge, ON) – who was named the Nike player of the match – opened the scoring for the hometown Capers.
The Bachelor of Business Administration student – one of CBU's tournament all-stars – deftly finished a play started by Caper captain Zé Cunha (Cascais, Portugal), who made his way through a couple of Montréal defenders before getting the ball to a lunging Max Piepgrass (Calgary, AB), another championship team all-star, whose deflection ended up at the feet of Spizzirri, who dashed towards the goal and laced a strike under the cross bar behind goalkeeper Olivier Rouleau to make it 1-0.
That was the score heading to the locker room at halftime.
Spizzirri described the victory as "amazing."
"It feels like nothing that I have ever experienced in my life," he said.
Spizzirri added, "We worked so hard – until the final whistle – and we deserve this championship."
As the second half unfolded, Montréal increased its territorial advantage and offensive zone pressure on CBU, but they were rarely able to challenge the air-tight Caper defense; and, when they did, tournament all-star keeper Daniel Clarke (Milton Keynes, England) barred the door, while finishing with six saves and the shutout.
The Carabins fired 10 shots on goal in the second half, with the best scoring chance of the bunch – one of the few times that the visitors got in tight on Clarke – coming in the 84th minute. A strike from Alexander Katsaros, from approximately 10 yards away, sailed high and wide.
"I am so proud of everyone … and I am so happy to have won with such a great group of brothers," Spizzirri said.
Clarke and the Caper defense surrendered only two goals in three championship tournament matches, with both coming in their quarterfinal contest with the UQTR Patriotes. The gold-medal winning shutout performance came on the heels of a 1-0 victory over the Mount Royal University Cougars in a national semi-final match-up.
The host team – as much as its talent and skill – showed perseverance and resilience in coming off the lowest of lows only seven days earlier.
On the same home turf where they had gold medals draped around their necks Sunday afternoon, the Capers pursuit of Atlantic University Sport (AUS) history came to a screeching halt. Shooting for their seventh consecutive conference banner, which would have set a new mark for AUS men's varsity soccer, CBU dropped the championship match to the STFX X-Men – their heated rivals – on Nov. 5.
Nevertheless, the Capers – like most champions do – galvanized rather than crumbled.
"We faced a lot of adversity, including not winning AUS and having a loss on our home field," Sheppard offered.
Ranked fifth in the eight-team tournament, CBU started its magical run with the aforementioned quarter-final win over UQTR; Clarke stoned two out of four penalty-kick shooters, while Sheppard – who tallied twice in the first half – was one of four shooters, along with Jamie Nicholson (North Petherton, UK), Jason Hartil (Carleton Place, ON) and Ben Fortuin (Maidenhead, England) – who found the back of the net under pressure to help seal the win.
The Capers also scored the exciting victory while shorthanded; Cunha, Piepgrass and Elijah Le (Vaughan, ON) – three starters – didn't dress because they received red cards in the AUS final loss to the X-Men. Yet another obstacle overcome by the perennial championship contenders on the journey to a second national crown.
"We had other people step up and play a big role," Sheppard said.
He added, "It's a team of 22 players, not just 11, that won us the tournament."
Morley offered, "The thing about a 'wounded animal' is that you better pray it doesn't get up."
"This team didn't just get back up, they rose up; they grew stronger, became more connected, more ruthless and more inspired."
And, of course, Sheppard credited the almost 1,100 spectators – mostly Caper fans – for helping the team reach the top of the podium.
"With the crowd behind us, there was no chance that we were going to let a team beat us on home soil again," he said.
The second USPORTS men's soccer banner – and Sam Davidson Memorial Trophy – for the program came six years to the day after the Capers won their first – on Nov. 12, 2017 – 3-2, in penalty kicks, over the same Carabins in Kamloops, BC.
"Now, we count down the days to get back on the field and keep going because never again will we be called a 'wounded animal,'" Morley noted.
The Ontario Tech Ridgebacks will host the 2024 national championship tournament on its north Oshawa campus.
"I am so proud of this team's character and resilience – they really demonstrated the Island's spirit," Morley said of his Capers.
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- Recap by CBU Athletics