Les Rouges to face Bobcats, Blazers in MCAC futsal finals
Trinity Nylen refused to let her only home game of her final futsal season be her last.
The Brandon University Bobcats goalkeeper stole the show in an exciting MCAC women's futsal semifinal, keeping the Providence University College Pilots off the scoresheet for more than 49 minutes to lead her team to a 2-1 win at BU on Saturday.
"Of course, it sucks that one got me at the end," Nylen said, laughing, "but it just builds you up as keepers but the whole team, as we keep making saves, keep making those plays, it makes us so much more excited to win."
BU plays the Université de Saint-Boniface Les Rouges in the women's final on Sunday at 12:45 p.m.
USB and Canadian Mennonite University meet in the men's final at 2:30 p.m.
Pia Bokingkito got the BU women on the board early, then the Pilots' aggressive counterattack style led to a bundle of good scoring chances but Nylen rose to the occasion and denied them every time.
Tarin Ballan jumped on a rare loose ball in front of the Providence net and poked it in to go up 2-0 in the second half.
All-conference Pilot Paige Heide finally beat Nylen but with only 12 seconds left and Brandon held on for the dying seconds.
"It's the most fun way to play, honestly," Nylen said. "We haven't gotten to play at home all futsal season and it's electric."
LES ROUGES 7 BLAZERS 2
The Université de Saint-Boniface Les Rouges showed why they're the top seed, controlling play from start to finish of a 7-2 win over the Canadian Mennonite University Blazers.
It took a while to break the deadlock but when all-conference teamer Sydney Rudnicki blasted one shot in and headed another home, the defending champs were comfortable.
"It was such a relief starting out on top with those two gaols from Sydney, it made a big difference in how we felt," said Marlene Zarychta, who netted a hat trick and earned player of the game for USB.
"It was a very emotional game, lots at stake, a lot of pressure, anxiety but even though all the difficulties I think we really pushed hard the whole game, put a lot of effort every minute and I think it showed with the results."
The game had a long delay when CMU's Ayesha Umar went down with a significant leg injury that required an immediate 911 call. She was taken to the hospital with 10:23 remaining in the game, after scoring CMU's first goal.
"We're really sorry about what happened to Ayesha, it's very tough," Zarychta said. "She's an awesome player. We all love to play against Ayesha. Not only is she a super strong player, she's really kind and a great sport. We're wishing her a speedy recovery."
Umar earned CMU's player of the game selection.
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BLAZERS 4 BOBCATS 3
The game of the day ended dramatically as Ismail Karim scored the game-winner with 3.2 seconds remaining, powering CMU to a 4-3 win over the defending champion BU.
"I saw the gap earlier in the game and I didn't want to say anything. I knew there was going to be a gap. I looked at Victor (Hugo) and we knew the second I'm going to run, he's going to give it in the middle and I'm going to tap it in," Karim said, adding the Blazers went into the playoffs hungry.
"We knew BU is the best team in this league and we knew we had to fight and win every 50/50 ball. We fought and played with heart and showed why we deserve to be in this competition."
Humayun Umar opened the scoring for the Blazers before Camilo Rodriguez replied with back-to-back goals to put BU up 2-1.
CMU tied it in the last minute of the half on a long ball to pivot Matthew Pahl, who turned and squeezed a shot home.
"For the last five days, we worked on how to deliver it to the pivot on the way and how we can release it and find our wingers or myself at the back," Karim said. "We came here and did it perfectly."
CMU took the lead on a set piece and stayed ahead until Rodriguez tied it with less than two minutes to go, setting the stage for Karim's winner.
LES ROUGES 4 PILOTS 1
A balanced yet potent USB offence delivered steadily throughout the game as four different scorers hit the net in a 4-1 win over the second-seed Pilots.
"There's no selfishness in our team. We just try to work together to get the job done," said True Sport team member Abdoul Niangadou, who scored the final goal of the game. "That's what we did today and we were grateful for that."
Player of the game Derrick Yappi scored the game-winner and all-conference striker Franck N'Dia added an insurance goal for Les Rouges.
Rashard Hibbert netted PUC's only goal.
USB is back in the final after losing 8-7 in extra time to Brandon at CMU last year.
"We still had the feeling we had last year when we lost in the final," Niangadou said. "Since the beginning of this season, we had a goal, which was going to the final and winning."