MVP Buick drives BU men to title

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This article was published 28/10/2019 (2352 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTERBURNE — Travis Buick thought he scored the biggest goal of his life on Saturday to send the Brandon University Bobcats through to the Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference men’s soccer final.

That one takes second place on his list now.

Less than 24 hours later, the second-year right back headed home an even bigger one in strikingly similar fashion to spark the Bobcats to a 3-2 victory over the host Providence University College Pilots on Sunday for their first men’s soccer title since joining the league in 2014.

The unlikely hero, who was expecting play a much quieter role and defend the Pilots’ attack, and certainly didn’t expect to hear his name called as the tournament’s most valuable player.

“It has been unreal. We’ve got a great bunch of guys and I’m excited, I’m glad I got to experience it with them, for sure,” Buick said. “I just came and I played my hardest and got rewarded with two goals and got the MVP. I’m happy with it, and right now I’m just really focused on celebrating with the boys.”

When the forecast called for temperatures hovering around freezing, the Flin Flon product knew that wouldn’t be an issue for him.

“It was like throwing it back to being a kid again, playing with your buddies outside on the field. It doesn’t really bother me, the only thing is your hands get a little chilly, but that’s nothing,” Buick said.

The Pilots nearly opened the scoring at the five-minute mark when goalkeeper William Tonning left his net to collect a ball and got beat by Austin Blackwell. He crossed to Aniel Athwal who rung his first-touch volley off the crossbar and pounded the rebound over the bar.

Buick opened the scoring less than eight minutes in when he climbed above Providence defenders and headed a cross neatly into the top left corner of the net.

The Pilots replied soon after as Devin Vermette beat Tonning.

Chances were few and far between in the rest of the half, but BU midfielder Jibril Yimar sprung Kevin Lopez on a through ball, and the second-year striker from Crocus Plains tucked it past Providence goalie Justin Hofmann just before the halftime whistle.

“Once I saw Jibril with the ball, I knew I had to make the run and it was one-v-one with the goalie and I put it in,” Lopez said. “It was really great. Scoring at the end of the half is always good. It pumps you up, pumps up the whole team and second half, you’re ready to go.”

The Bobcats defended well, taking the scoring chances they were given but remaining cautious most of the second half. Then head coach Jesse Roziere put Sam Wetstein in with less than 10 minutes remaining to help create pressure up front and drain the clock.

The rookie from Cartwright did a little more than that. In the 89th minute, he collected the ball 35 yards from the Pilots goal, took a touch and saw Hofmann off his line. He launched a shot that barely tucked under the bar for what would prove to be much more than an insurance marker to lead 3-1.

“I just expected to go to the corner and kill minutes pretty much, but I saw that the goalie was a little out and took a shot,” Wetstein said.

“I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was going over, I thought it was going to hit the crossbar, then it went in and I just went crazy. I saw guys running at me, guys were going crazy on the sideline and it was a great moment.”

Gio Benitez replied on a free kick a minute later and forced Brandon to defend a little harder for all three minutes of added time.

When the final whistle sounded, Roziere jumped almost as high as Buick did for his goal, in case it wasn’t clear how special it was for the coach and all the Bobcats who experienced the 1-0 heartbreaking loss to Canadian Mennonite University in last year’s final.

The bench boss stressed the importance of his weapons up front in Lopez, Yimar and Rinor Hoxha, who scored the insurance marker in Saturday’s 2-0 semifinal victory over the Université de Saint-Boniface Les Rouges.

“We have a very potent top front three. Even with all the guys we lost and some injuries, we had a potent front three that teams were very worried about,” Roziere said. “(Sunday) we have two guys high and they’re holding five guys back the whole game. Two-versus-five at the top allows us more space to defend in other areas and a player advantage. I can’t speak enough to how critical those guys up top were for us, but it was absolutely massive for other guys to step up this weekend.”

For Lopez, getting it done on the beat-up Otterburne turf made it a little more memorable.

“We know how hard it is to play here,” he said, “so to win the banner here is very, very special for us.”

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