Gold Medal: Royals v. Mariners

The top seeded VIU Mariners and second seeded Douglas Royals square off in the PACWEST championship today at noon. WATCH HERE

The Mariners earned the bye into this gold medal game by finishing in first place with a 7-3-2 record. They won three of their last four games coming into the PACWEST championship with their only loss coming at the hands of the Royals in the final game of the regular season. The Mariners are making their first appearance in this gold medal game since 2014 when they fell to the Royals. The last time they tasted PACWEST gold was in 2011 after beating the Capilano Blues.

The Royals are back in the gold medal game for the third time in four seasons, last winning the title in 2017. They got here by shutting out the Blues on Friday 2-0 behind six saves from keeper Felipe Domingos in the semi-final. Taylor Richardson scored the eventual game winner and Rafael Domingos added an insurance goal courtesy of a penalty kick.

During the regular season these two met four times. The Mariners won their first two meetings, while the Royals have won the last two. Three of the four games have resulted in a shutout. The Mariners have outscored the Royals 6-4 thanks in large part to a five goal outburst in their first meeting of the year. Billy Bagiopoulos scored three times in that first game, but hasn’t scored against the Royals since. Speaking of the Royals their four goals in this series have been scored by four different players.

The seasonal series has been a physical one as well. There have been a total of nine yellow cards issued, seven to the Royals.

The keepers have been busy with each team using two different netminders in this series. For the first place Mariners Kevin Picard has stopped 11 shots and recorded a shutout and teammate Michael Heppelle has kicked away 15. Over on the other side Domingos has a shutout with 12 saves as does Jacob Mcnall who has made 25 saves in three games.

Regardless of the outcome today both teams know they are heading to the CCAA national championship in Durham Ontario November 6-9. Today’s winner will be the PACWEST champion seed while the other will be a wildcard seed.

Head to Head

Records – Royals 2-2, overall 6-4-2 – Mariners 2-2, overall 7-3-2
Goals Scored – Royals 4, overall 20 - Mariners 6, overall 25
Goals Allowed – Royals 6, overall 16 - Mariners 4, overall 14

Leading Scorers – four different players scored in the series, but overall Milan Gandesha 5 goals (Royals) – Billy Bagiopoulos 3 goals, 7 goals overall (Mariners)

Leading Keepers – Felipe Domingos – 0.93 GAA (Royals) – Kevin Picard – 0.90 GAA (Mariners)