Extra-time anguish for Brandon men in final

The Brandon University Bobcats left it all on the field, then left the field.

At a site they’ve done nothing but celebrate all season, after 120-plus gruelling minutes, they couldn’t watch the Canadian Mennonite University Blazers hoist the trophy they were certain would be theirs.

The Blazers beat the top-ranked Bobcats 2-1 in extra time in the Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference men’s soccer final at the Healthy Living Centre field.

Bobcat fifth-years Nathan Chubaty and Bryson Haywood had no words as they left the pitch for the last time.

Striker T.J. Bodunrin felt their pain.

“That one definitely hurts because those guys are like my brothers. I love them to death. I can definitely say everyone on this field definitely put their heart out and fought every single minute for those guys,” Bodunrin said.

“It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t give them one more trophy and one more trip out, but hey, we still got another year, we still got more to look forward to.”

The game was physical and vocal from the start.

Both teams committed a ton of fouls, thought the other team committed more, yelled when a foul was called on them and yelled more when one wasn’t called for them.

The complaints far outweighed the number of quality scoring chances in a scoreless opening 45 minutes.

While the displeasure persisted, both offences woke up in the second half.

The Blazers struck first when all-conference striker Romaine Francis curled in a low, left-footed corner kick to the front post for final-four MVP Taiwo Oshode to flick with his head to the back post, beating standout keeper Matheus Souza on the hour mark.

Nine minutes later, the Bobcats caught a break when Blazers keeper Nicholas Peterson failed to handle a Camilo Rodriguez free kick. CMU cleared the ball off the goal line once, but Bryson Haywood headed it forward to Matheus Ruffini, who was facing away from the net, yet still headed it home to tie it.

The rest of regulation time solved nothing, nor did the first half of extra time.

Three minutes into the second bonus frame, CMU appeared to take the lead, but after a discussion with the assistant referee, the referee overturned the goal by ruling Francis offside.

The striker didn’t quit, though, and seven minutes later was dribbling across the top of the penalty area when Matt Wolfe attempted a tackle but missed the ball and took Francis down for a penalty kick.

Souza guessed correctly, but rookie of the year Nicholas Pavao blasted it above his outstretched arms for the game-winner.

Naturally, the Bobcats didn’t like the call.

“It’s definitely a hard one. It’s one of those things where we like to set the game for us. We want the game to be decided for us, or honestly, we want the game to be decided by the other team,” Bodunrin said.

“We don’t want the game decided by silly things such as how it ended (Sunday). I think both teams fought. I wouldn’t be mad if either team came out, but the way the result came out is truly unfair.

“It was blatantly obvious that it wasn’t a penalty, I’m not going to sugar coat it, I think everyone else here knew the guy was going down and the ref gave it because he saw it.”

The Bobcats tried desperately to equalize but weren’t quite able to cash in on a few chaotic scramble plays. One included Rodriguez taking his second yellow card and being sent off with just a few minutes to go.

“CMU came out and played quite well. They set up quite well … especially judging from the last game we played against them, they set up well to deal with what we had for them,” Bodunrin said, referring to BU’s 6-0 win over the champions earlier in the month. “They played a good game, and it was definitely a battle for both teams.

“They edged it out; it’s part of the game.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

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