The VIU Mariners were denied a provincial championship in a shootout, but their soccer season will continue.
Vancouver Island University’s men’s soccer team lost to the Douglas Royals in penalty kicks at the end of a 1-1 match in the Pacific Western Athletic Association championship final on Sunday, Oct. 29, at Q’unq’inuqwstuxw Stadium.
The match was worthy of a provincial final, exciting all the way through. The Royals opened the scoring in the third minute, and although the Mariners were stopped on a penalty kick 15 minutes later, they found the back of the net in the 29th minute when Griffin Douglas buried the rebound of a teammate’s shot off the crossbar.
Early in the second half, the Royals’ goalkeeper was red-carded, so the visitors needed to play the rest of the half and overtime a man down.
In penalty kicks, Douglas scored on all five of their tries, while VIU had one attempt stopped.
The PacWest has a wild card berth at nationals this year, meaning both the Royals and the Mariners will get to go to Windsor, Ont. for the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association championships at St. Clair College from Nov. 8-11.
VIU’s Travis Brown and Michael Heppelle were selected all-stars at provincials.
The Mariners women’s soccer team finished third at the PacWest championships.
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