Blue, Edwards hold title hopes in final season at BU

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This article was published 06/09/2018 (2827 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Taylor Blue and Osian Edwards say the Brandon University men’s soccer team has come a long way in their four years with the program.

Now both hope they can complete their five-year journey with a Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference (MCAC) title in their final season.

“My goal at the start coming to BU was to get a banner,” Edwards said. “Obviously that’s still a goal of mine, and it’s a big goal, but I think the bigger picture is just watching this program grow and seeing it continuously taken to the next step and knowing I was a part of something that was something big.”

The Bobcats open their 10-game season on Saturday afternoon at 3:15 against the Providence University College Pilots.

Head coach Jesse Roziere said that Blue and Edwards have had a remarkable impact on the program.

“I can’t say enough about those two,” Roziere said. “They’ll be the first five-year players in our soccer history here at BU. What they’ve gone through in the program and the growth they have seen is quite tremendous. We’ve demanded a lot out of them the last couple of years and they’ve always brought the on-field stuff but we’ve continued to push them in more leadership roles, and stuff that is new to them that we want to see in the program for years to come. For guys who come this year, it’s their normal now.

“But Taylor and Osian saw the program a lot differently a few years ago and helped to shape this new culture and new standard.”

The program actually started as a club team before joining MCAC for the 2014 fall season. Blue said that everything has changed since.

“It was the start of a program,” Blue said. “In order to build that you needed time and you needed the culture. We’ve had the time and now we’ve introduced a culture that everybody seems to be following. The program, in my eyes, has grown exponentially. It’s awesome.”

The six-team MCAC league also includes the Assiniboine Community College Cougars, Université de Saint-Boniface Les Rouges, Canadian Mennonite University Blazers and Red River College Rebels.

Each team plays a home-and-away game the other five squads in the league. The regular season wraps up on Oct. 21, with the top four teams meeting in the semifinals in Winnipeg on Oct. 27. The championship will be decided on Oct. 28.

The Bobcats have lost several players from last season, including graduates and students who decided to focus on their schooling, but brought in a talented new group of players to their roster of 22.

“This year we’re very excited about some of the players we’ve added,” Roziere said.

The team will boast another pair of Bermuda residents in midfielder Erik Correia, 17, and defender Akim Johnston, 19, who will join second-year player Jordan Dill.

The Bobcats had 18 on their roster in Roziere’s first season, which was two years ago. BU began to extend its recruiting beyond Westman last year, nabbing midfielder Jason Wiebe from MacGregor and Kristen Bender from Benito.

“I think they’re going to be an exciting team,” Roziere said. “They’re still fairly young. We have some key players who are older and have that experience but some very exciting players who can play with the ball. I think that’s the reason everybody plays, is to have the ball.

“Nobody likes to chase it.”

He said the team has enjoyed itself most when they are pushing the tempo and pace of the game.

That’s a process that has also been part of the team’s evolution.

“It’s playing our game,” Roziere said. “I think that’s going to be a new challenge for us. A couple of years ago, we weren’t the strongest in the league. We had strong players and players who put in a lot of work to help catapult this program to new levels each year, but we defended a lot. We didn’t have the ball much.

“Last year we started to see a bit of a transition where we were the better team in games and I think this year we’re going to see more of that. We’re going to have a fairly strong team.”

Edwards thinks the team’s experience from last year, when they went 4-4-2 and finished third, will help. They fell 2-0 in the semifinals to eventual champion St. Boniface.

“I think a lot of it just comes from experience,” Edwards said. “We have a lot of returning guys, so the experience is a big thing. If you compare this to our first year here, when the first week of training, the people who showed up were on the team. We have recruits now and players who are coming in from overseas to play soccer. You can see it in their experience and knowledge of the game.”

But talent is never enough. Blue added that the young players have done an excellent job of enforcing and building on the existing culture, which stresses hard work on and off the field.

“On the field, we always talk about non-negotiables, so the work rate, the effort, all those things have to be there,” Blue said. “On top of that, with the culture of having practice, having the touch, knowing your role on the team and role on the field has come in. What I need to see is everyone come in and perform their role well. I know my role and I know if everybody does their role, no team is going to come close.”

Edwards added that consistency is key.

“You can’t sleep for five minutes in any game because if you do, any team can win,” Edwards said. “Even a tie is not something you want because dropping points is a pretty big deal in this league. Being consistent in what we want is pretty important.”

With their short season, finding a way into the final weekend is the first goal, but a much bigger one awaits.

Roziere said his team has to be ready.

“In a league like this where it’s a final four, anything can happen,” Roziere said. “You just have to get to the last weekend. In terms of us, we just have to focus on our game and be prepared to play every day.”

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