Men's Bracket Opens

#3 VIU Mariners @ #2 Langara Falcons – Saturday October 27, 5:15pm | WATCH HERE

Saturday afternoon the men’s bracket at the 2023 PACWEST soccer championship tournament opens in Nanaimo when the Falcons and Mariners meet. This is a rematch of last year’s gold medal game that the Mariners won 2-0.

These teams met four times during the regular season with the Falcons winning three times and they tied once.  In two of the Falcons wins, they shutout out the Mariners and outscored them 9-3 in the seasonal series.

The Falcons were stung by that loss last season in the gold medal game and will be hungry for payback on Saturday, particularly their returning leadership group led by the PACWEST Player of the Year David Rodriguez Zegarra and his team leading seven goals.   All-Stars Wizaro Chavula and Tako Ota were part of last year’s squad and are ready to push for a gold this year.  They are littered with talented goal scorers like Henrique Claros and Athos Michellepis de Siqueira who can strike at anytime.

Keepers Blake Charlesworth and Ziyan Clark-Ismail have also played an important role this season with four clean sheets and a goals against average of one.

The Mariners may feel that this already is their second playoff game after needing a win over Douglas last weekend to clinch the final playoff spot, which they did 3-2.

Their offence has been without All-Star Vasilios Bagiopoulos for the past several games with a lower body injury and it’s unclear if he’ll return to the roster for the postseason.  His Mariners are a different team when he’s on the pitch and has the talent to be able to take over a game in the blink of an eye.  Both Travis Brown and Michael Heppelle have stepped up their game in his absence and will need to continue to if Bagiopoulos is unavailable this weekend.

Keeper Ben Chamberlin has been good this season playing in all 12 games.  He has one clean sheet and a goals against average of one.

The winner on Saturday will face the Douglas Royals in the PACWEST gold medal game on Sunday, and will punch their ticket to the CCAA Nationals in Windsor Ontario as the Conference receives a wild card berth at the tournament.

Head-to-Head

Records: Mariners 4-7-1 – Falcons 6-4-2
Goals For: Mariners 15 – Falcons 21
Goals Allowed: Mariners 22 – Falcons 14

Leading Scorers: Vasilios Bagiopoulos – 5 (Mariners) - David Rodriguez Zegarra – 7 (Falcons)