nema
lercoaster

i

College teams
win and iose
at B.C. finals

By Andrew McCredie

Sports Editor
andrew@nsnews.com

CAP College soccer
fans experienced the
thrill of victory aud the
agony of defeat last
Saturday during the
B.C. college finals.

First, the thrill.

As expected, the women
Blues won their third straight
provincial title, with a work-
maniixe 2-nil win over
University College of the
Fraser Vailey.

Tanya Chapman had the
game winner 14 minutes in,
while Megan Williams added
an insurance marker five min-
utes into the second half.

I think we can play berter
soccer than that, but some-

_ times your nerves are so bad
in a cup final that you just get
into thet kicking and bash-
ing,” Blues kad coach Doug
Abercro.itte said following
the early afternoon game.

“But I thought we did well.
We scored the nvo goals that
we needed to, and held them
off. At times we were backed
up more in the box more than
Pd want co see, but we man-
aged to keep them off the
scoreboard.”

Abercrombie and his ream
are currently in) Montreal at
the nationals, playing for an
unprecedented third straighr
Canadian championship.

Asked if he feared his teans
might vet overconfident (they
haver’t lost a game all vear),
Abercrombie said he didn’:
“Quite honestly, the last cou-
ple of years it’s been tougher
to get out of here (the
province) than it is to win the
nationais.”

This year’s national tour-
nament format will feature six
teams contesting the title. In
the past, 12 teams qualified
for the Canadians. The new
format means each region’s
best team will be playing.

“It will be tougher, to be
sure,” Abercrombie added.

Now, the agony.

In what can only be
described as one of the
strangest turn of events in a
soccer game ~— collegiate and
otherwise — the Blues men’s
team had their semi-final
shootout victory over

north shore news

@

University College of the
Cariboo revoked following
an appeal brought by the
Cariboo coach after the Friday
afternoon game.

The appeal stemmed from
the referee denying a Cariboo
goalie substitution request
after regulation time, but
before the shootout, Capilano
won the shootout, but fate
Friday night Cap coach Bob
Birarda received word that
the appeal was upheld and
that his team would have to
go through another shootout
against. Cariboo on Sarurday
before the men’s tinal, The
winners would play Langara;
the losers would jump in their
cars and drive to North
Vancouver for the bronze
medal game.

“You just have to be philo-
suphical,” Birards said) min-
utes after the Blues lost the
make-up shootout. “The ref:
eree made a bad decision, and
we have to live with it.
Whenever you do these things
(a shootout) it’s a coin toss.
Ir’s just disappointing because
we had such a great season.”

Despite the heartbreaker,
the Blues beat Malaspina 4-2
in the bronze medal game.
(For more on the shootout
controversy see View from the
Cheap Seats on this page.}

NEWS phote Paul McGrath

A couple of keepers... Cap goalies Angelia Pelleirn (left) and Christina D'Andrea.

Talented pair a net gain

CONSIDERING just
five goals were scored
on the Capilano
College women’s soccer
team during their
undefeated 10-game
run this season, it’s no
surprise the Blues have
a great goalkeeper.

Only, they don’t. They
have two.

Christina D’Andrea and
Angela Pelieirn have shared
keeper duties for the Blues
from the beginning of the sea-
son. And not just by alternat-
ing starts; they’ve been alter-
nating halves.

“The goalkeepers hate it,
bur it works for me,” says
Blues head coach Doug
Abercrombie, who adds with

a laugh, “I just don’t want to
make a choice.

“Tr’s too hard ro say ‘Okay
your going, to play’, and other
one’s going ta sit.”

And so far his choice not
to choose has worked our just
fine.

D'Andrea, with a 0.58
goals average, and Pelieirn,
with a 0.71, finished second
and third respectively in
BCCAA goalie standings.

“It’s healthy competition,”
Pelleirn says of the unique sit-
uation. “We work off each
other.”

Adds D’Andrea: “It’s hard
to sit on the bench the whole
game, especially if it’s an
important game. It’s hard not
be a part of it.”

True to form, each keeper
played 45 minutes of shutout

soccer on Saturday in the
Blues’ 2-nil_ = win over
University College of the
Fraser Valley to take their
third straight provincial title.

Likewise, the pair share
shutout honors from Friday’s
6-0 semi-final win over
Langara.

D’Andrea, a third-year
player, was named to the B.C.
tournament all-star team.

“It’s hard to win twice ina
row, but when it’s three times
youre pushing your luck,”
D'Andrea said of going to
Montreai to defend the
national title the Blues have
won the past two years. “You
kind of get nervous, but then
you remember about the team
in front of you. It takes a lot
of the nervousness away.”

— Andrew McCredie

CAPILANO College forward Vanessa Martino (left) challenges a UCFV play

Wednesday, November 5, 1997 — North Shore News — 37

>

NEWS photo Paul MeGrath
er for

the ball during the B.C. Championship game at BCIT on Saturday. The North Van
college team won the game 2-nil and is currently in Montreal at the Nationals.

Shootout a wash-out

A weekend that
promised spectacular
soccer was ruined by
controversy for Cap
College’s men’s teara.

“The last 20 hours have
been unbelievable,” Blues
head coach Bob Birarda was
saying, minutes after his tam
lost a controversial shootout
to Cariboo College in the
B.C. semi-final.

An appeai lodged by
Cariboo following the first
shootout —won by Cap
College on Friday — was
granted and BCCAA officials
told Birarda late Friday night
to get his lads ready tor
another shootout on
Saturday just prior to the
B.C. final.

“The referee made a mis-
take in his judgement, and it
cost us,” Birarda said.

But in addition to the
frustration that the appeal!
caused the first-year coach
and his team, Birarda was
angry at how the appeal
process was handied.

“They first rold me 10
minutes after Friday’s game
that there was no appeal.
Then 20 minutes later they
said they were going to con-
sider the appeal again.”

This back and forth went
on for the next few hours.

“Then I got a call last
night at 8:30 telling me they
had bad news for me. And
then at 9:30 telling me they

t cheap seats

o'clock, lets go and play the
gold medal game.”

But the tables turned one
last time and a second
shootout was set.

HRaddled with his players
prior to the tense shooreut on
Saturday, Birarda tried to set-
tle his team: “We juse tatked
about things being out of our
control and how we could
turn it into a positive today, to
use it as a springboard to play-
ing in the gold medal game.”

But it was not to be as the
Cariboo keeper stopped the

DOUG Abercrombie —
Passed over once again
as the coach of the year.

had good news for me.
“So E told all the guys at
9:45 chat we're on for one

sixth and final Capilano shot
for the victory. (Cariboo sub-
sequently lost to Langara 3-
nil in the final.) :

“We had an excellent
year,” the Cap coach said of
his team. “We had just three
players return from last year,
and we got to the point this
season where we were ranked
in the top owe or three or
four all year long.”

Throw-ins... North Van City
Parks’ last minute decision to
close Kinsmen Field not only
threw tournament organizers
into firs but also cost Capilano
College some revenue,

The North Van school co-
hosted the B.C, soccer ckraim”
pionship tourney with BCIT,
and was counting on gate
receipts from Sarurday’s finals
at Kinsmen to help offset
costs,

“I got a call at 1:30
Friday and was told we
couldn’s use the field,”
Capilano College atidetic
director Joe lacobellis said.
“We had a contract for that
day with the city for six
months.” Rant

Finally, why hasn‘t Cap
women’s coach Doug
Abercrombie been selected
B.C. coach of the year for
one of the past three seasons?
The Blues have won the
natiowals twice during that
time, and are currently in ¢™
Montreal looking for an
unprecedented three-peat.

~