It was an unfortunate end to a dominant season for the York lions men’s soccer team, who wrapped up their season this past weekend in New Brunswick at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport national championship.
the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds.
In their first game of the finals, York squared off with the St. Mary’s Huskies of the Atlantic University Sport conference. St Mary’s finished second only to UNB in the regular season, and UNB also ended up defeating them in the AUS championship game. The game would prove to be mostly one-sided as the Lions jumped all over the Huskies early. In the 17th minute, Dylan Sacramento was able to break the ice for York, giving them a lead that would never be threatened the rest of the way.
Seven minutes after their first goal, Mark-Anthony Kaye was able to beat the Huskies’ keeper to give his team an early 2-0 lead. Kaye would later add another goal to secure a 3-0 win, advancing the Lions to the CIS semi-finals against the UBC Thunderbirds.
While York was up against the defending national champions,a quick marker by Sacramento pulled the Lions ahead just 12 minutes into the contest. However, the lead would be short-lived as UBC’s Sean Einarsson evened the score at 1-1 in the 24th minute.
While the loss sent York home without any hardware, they earned the title of fourth-best university team in Canada. The Lions had a tremendous season when many questioned how good they would be, and the emergence of young stars like Sacramento and Jonathan Lao ensures York will be contenders for the national title in future years.
Ryan McCabe
Sports and Health Editor
