Mariners & Royals Go For Gold

VIU Mariners @ Douglas Royals – Sunday October 31, 3:00pm | WATCH HERE

The final game of the PACWEST soccer season goes Sunday afternoon when the top seeded Royals face the third seeded Mariners in the men’s gold medal game.   Oddly enough this was also the match-up when the PACWEST soccer season came to a close in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.  That afternoon the Royals scored a 1-0 victory as both teams qualified for the CCAA national championship tournament that year.  This time around, only the PACWEST champion will move on.

The Royals earned a bye into the gold medal game, while the Mariners had to win a semi-final to get here.  Yesterday they beat the second seeded Langara Falcons 1-0 on the strength of a Hector Valdez goal in the 37^th minute, then let keeper Ben Chamberlain take over and record the shutout.

This will be the fourth meeting of the season between these two teams as all games ended in a one goal differential.  The Royals won the last two match-ups in the seasonal series and outscored the Mariners 5-4 including a 1-0 shutout on October 3rd.

Sunday’s game marks the fifth time in PACWEST history that the Royals and Mariners have tackled for Conference gold.  The Royals have won all four previous match-ups in 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2019.

The winner moves onto the CCAA national championship which will be held in Calgary at SAIT from November 10-13^th.