Capers win battle of undefeated soccer teams

Antigonish, NS – Tidy defending and a pair of early goals pushed the USPORTS No. 3 Cape Breton Capers to a 2-1 victory over the USPORTS No. 4 STFX X-Men on Wednesday night at STFX Stadium. The loss was the first one of the season for the X-Men in the battle of undefeated teams. 

The Capers got off to a great start, with Max Piepgrass (Calgary, AB) curling a free kick inside the near post to open the scoring. STFX looked to reply in the 11^th minute, but the Capers were able to clear a free kick from Kyle Cordeiro (Oakville, ON).

The X-Men then tried to capitalize on a bouncing ball in the Capers' 18 minutes later, but the visitors were able to clear.

Cape Breton doubled their lead in the 20^th minute with Tomas Elwahab (Ramla, Israel) getting a foot to a ball inside the 18-yard and knocking a low shot home.

Owen Sheppard (St. John's, NL) looked to make it 3-0 in the 40^th minute but Gabriel Pizza Player of the game Sam Diltz (Newmarket, ON) made a beauty of a save from in close.

STFX started the second half strong, carrying possession early, but the Capers continued to keep the ball out of the net. Diltz made a massive diving save in the 67^th minute to keep the X-Men in the game.

STFX's Logan Reick (Cambridge, ON) gave the fans something to cheer about, drilling a penalty kick down the middle in the 70^th minute, making the score 2-1. A long-distance strike from Rieck a few minutes late sailed just high.   

Sheppard almost added another goal in extra-time but his shot bounced off the post and away.

Capers defender Harvey Hughes (Southhampton, Hampshire) was player of the game for his team.

Both teams have a break from AUS action for the Thanksgiving weekend. The X-Men will next play on Friday, October 18^th when they travel to Moncton for a 7:15 pm game against the Aigles Blues. The Capers will play at Dalhousie, also on October 18^th at 7:15 pm.

Prior to the game the X-Men honoured their graduating senior student-athletes including Jack Pensom, Logan Rieck, Charlie Waters, Kyle Cordeiro, Cam Shaw, Owen Pensom, Dyan Wil, Fergus Hall, Oliver Vossen and goaltender coach Jae Jeon.

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Recap courtesy Matt Draper, STFX Athletics

STFX X-Men Soccer senior graduating student-athletes