The men’s soccer team shrugged off a shaky start to their semi-final match to defeat the Vikes and advance to the national championship.

For the first time in Huskies men’s soccer history the team is heading to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship.

The squad clinched the spot by defeating the University of Victoria Vikes in Canada West semi-final action. The Dogs lost to the to the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in the Canada West final but will still advance to the national tournament.

After falling behind 0-1 after the first half, the Huskies fought back to down the Vikes 2-1 in extra time. The come-from-behind win showed the Dogs’ composure and Head Coach Bryce Chapman was pleased with how the squad dealt with the pressure of needing to score or seeing their playoff dreams end.

“We never really panicked even when we were down one late in the match,” Chapman said to UBC Sports. “That’s the team, we’ve battled back on a number of occasions during the season, we have a good group of guys with a lot of character.”

After the Vikes scored 21 minutes into the match, the Dogs were forced to play catch-up for the remainder of the first half and partway into the second. The Huskies finally broke through in the 82nd minute when Bobbi Nicholat headed the ball past Vikes’ keeper Elliot Mitrou. The goal pushed the match into extra time and reignited the Dogs’ chance to play for the Canada West banner.

With the momentum on their side and a spot in the final within sight, it wasn’t long before the Huskies struck again. In the 93rd minute Brett Levis had a golden opportunity to score after sloppy play led to the Vikes losing the ball in front of their own net. Levis made no mistake and the goal was enough to secure the 2-1 win for the Huskies.

Huskies’ keeper Michal Bandula finished with 10 saves in the match while Mitrou finished with three.

The importance of advancing to the CIS Championships for the first time was not lost on Chapman or the team.

“It’s massive,” said Chapman. “The team stuck in there the first half, you could tell we were a bit on our heels but we didn’t let the game get away from us playing a great second half and solid in extra time.”

Playing the reigning Canada West and CIS champions — the UBC Thunderbirds — for the title the Huskies couldn’t find the same resilience they displayed against the Vikes and fell 1-6.

The Thunderbirds jumped on the board early, scoring eight minutes into the first half. Niall Cousens netted the opening goal off of a free kick from Milad Mehrabi. Eight minutes later Cousens added another goal to extend their lead to 2-0.

The Huskies got one back in the 21st minute when Luigi Bekwayo buried a rebound past Thunderbirds’ keeper Luke O’Shea.

Cousens scored his third and fourth goals of the match to give the Thunderbirds a 4-1 lead with 15 minutes left to go in the opening half.

The Thunderbirds scored once more before the first 45 minutes of play was up. Mehrabi snuck a ball past Huskies defenders and Bandula to give the home team a sizeable 5-1 lead.

The final goal came in the 68th minute when Thunderbird Mitchell Popadynetz hit the far corner to beat Bandula. In the 82nd minute the Thunderbirds were left shorthanded when Otis Sandhu was given a red card after an aggressive tackle on Huskies defender Carson MacDonald. The one man advantage didn’t do any favours for the Huskies as the Thunderbirds took home the Canada West banner for the second consecutive year.

Bandula finished the game with two saves while O’Shea stopped three.

The Huskies will now turn their focus towards the national championship where they will face the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds in the quarter-finals. The Reds  finished the regular season 8-2-3 and are 2-0 in the post-season after winning the Atlantic University Sport division championship.

“We have to pick ourselves up for Thursday,” said Chapman. “I don’t think we’ll do much different, today was just an anomaly, we’ve been a lot more disciplined in the past, a lot more battle ready and we’ll go back to what we’ve done well.”

The Huskies play the Varsity Reds on  Nov. 7 at  4:30 p.m. in Fredericton.

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Photo: Calvin So