Men's Soccer News
Blazers Hand Out Hardware at the 2023 Green & Gold Banquet
Blazers Athletics celebrated the 2022/23 season at their annual Green & Gold Banquet held in the Great Hall at Canadian Mennonite University this past Tuesday, handing out awards for academics, athletic excellence, and good works, while sharing stories of the season's successes on and off the field of play.
This year the Blazers took home one MCAC Championship, that being the women's basketball team's fifth consecutive provincial title, and the team went on to a finals appearance at the NIAC Championships a week later. All eight Blazer teams, including women's and men's futsal made final four appearances at MCAC Championships, with both the men's volleyball and basketball teams making finals as well. The Blazers men's volleyball team peaked at the eighth spot in the CCAA National Volleyball Rankings in mid-February; the highest ranking an MCAC team has achieved in the conference's history thus far over its two years of full participation in the CCAA.
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Blazers wrap up their 2022/23 seasons
With MCAC and NIAC Championships all completed, the dust has finally settled on the 2022/23 varsity seasons, which gives us reason to take a look at some highlights of the past six months.
Blazers soccer started the season in September as always, and both teams came out of the gate a bit slowly waiting until their first matchups with the Assiniboine Community College Cougars in week two to pick up points on the season.
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Noah Schindel: October's Zueike Male Athlete of the Month
Congratulations to Noah Schindel of Men's Soccer on being selected the CMU Zueike Male Athlete of the Month for October. The rookie defender has been a fixture at the Blazers backline throughout the season, and the league has noticed.
A summer signing of Blazers Men's Soccer head coach Anderson Pereira, Schindel came to CMU with a maturity that most rookie athletes don't possess, owing to the gap years he took between high school and post-secondary education. He was named the Folio Cafe player of the game early in the season, and was deserving of the award on several other occasions throughout the second half when the Blazers had to chase down the Assiniboine Cougars for a spot in last weekend's MCAC Championships. Perhaps the pivotal moment in the season was during a beautiful October afternoon when the Blazers hosted the Cougars at the Ralph Cantafio Soccer Complex. Having tied in their previous match in the season, the Blazers needed points in the contest to keep pace with ACC and give themselves a chance at sneaking into the playoff picture. After two goals from CMU's Matheus Aquino put the Blazers ahead, the Cougars managed to fight back and press to go ahead late in the game. However, a final push by the green and gold produced a glorious top-shelf tally from outside the box off of the boot of Schindel, and kept the Blazers' season alive. The Blazers would go on to beat ACC on their home turf, and leapfrog them into the MCAC Championships semi-finals.
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Blazers Bow Out Early in Championship Run
The Blazers soccer teams arrived in Brandon on Saturday morning hoping for an extended stay in the Wheat City where the MCAC Soccer Championships were being held, but a deep title run was not in the cards for either team this season as both squads failed to produce the semi-final upsets needed to make a finals appearance.
The Blazer men kicked off the day's games playing the top-ranked Brandon Bobcats on their home field, a game that had originally been scheduled on neutral turf at the Brandon Sportsplex, where ACC was supposed to be hosting the first versus fourth seed games. The Bobcats took full advantage of their familiar field, launching an early counter-attack resulting in a goal which sent the Blazers reeling and chasing the remainder of the game. Clearly both sides had not forgotten their hotly contested clash last weekend when both goalkeeper Zach Bartel, and defender Matthew Pahl were sent off with red cards. Bartel was back in the Blazers' net after serving his one-game suspension, while Pahl was given a two-game suspension for his in-game altercation, which carried over into the semi-final.
Overall, the Blazers defended quite well after their early blunder, with MCAC All-Conference selection Noah Schindel working his magic at the back, and captain Matheus Aquino, also an MCAC All-Conference award-winner, leading the attack. However, CMU was up against the conference leader in goals in Brandon's Camilo Rodriguez, and it was apparent that his level of talent and recognition afforded him additional leniency with the officials, who tallied seven fouls for the attacking forward, but refused to pull out the cards for the home side. Several great chances off of set plays by the Bobcats in the second half came up empty, due to solid play by graduates Zach Bartel in goal and defender Gode Katembo, who was heroic in his challenges against Rodriguez. Nevertheless, the referees awarded a penalty to the home side on a seemingly harmless bit of defending by the Blazers, which resulted in the Bobcats' second goal and the back-breaker for the CMU side. Noah Schindel was named as CMU's player of the match for his fantastic defensive effort on the day.
Blazers Soccer Slide into Playoffs as Underdogs
The Blazers Athletics Soccer Teams finished up their MCAC regular season matches this past weekend, which included semi-finals previews on Saturday for the men's squad, and on Sunday for the women's squad. Both teams will be underdogs in their matches this coming weekend in Brandon going into the championship round as fourth seeds.
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