FREDERICTON, N.B.: Two Fall River soccer players were part of the reason the St. Francis Xavier University X-Men have gone back to back in men’ soccer.
Ethan Larsen and Luke Green both play with the Atlantic University Sport men’s soccer champion X-Men.
St. F.X. defeated UNB Reds 1-0 in double overtime to lift the Antigonish based team to their second straight conference championship and a berth at U-Sports nationals.
Kyle Cordeiro’s (Oakville, ON) goal in the 114th minute of play lifted the X-Men to the championship, defending it from winning it in 2023 as well.
In a goalless first half, the No. 6 seeded REDS pushed the top-ranked X-Men, creating turnovers but no real scoring opportunities, and pressuring the X attack with solid defending.
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The teams finished the first half with 0-0 still on the scoreboard.
An early second half attack by the REDS resulted in a collision between UNB’s Stefano D’Ambrogio (Toronto, ON) and X-Men keeper Samuel Diltz (Newmarket, ON). Diltz took the worst of the incident but remained in the game.
With less than three minutes on the clock STFX substitute Myroslav Zastavnyy (Toronto, ON) took a pass in the middle and fired a hard shot from about 30-yards out that sailed just over the crossbar of the UNB net.
The REDS had two late chances off corner kicks, but both were turned away by the X-Men just ahead of the referee’s full-time whistle.
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UNB’s Christopher Schmit (Vancouver, BC) and X’s Luke Green (Fall River, NS) were named players of the game for their respective sides.
Cordeiro was named MVP of the championship tournament.
Both teams will now prepare for the U SPORTS Men’s Soccer Championship.
It will take place at Ontario Tech University, November 7 to 10, in Oshawa, Ontario.
With info from a recap by Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics
