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Gryphons win thriller to advance to national semifinals

National university men's soccer championships taking place at Alumni Stadium this weekend

A single save by goalkeeper Ben Caranci put the Guelph Gryphons in a medal game at Alumni Stadium Sunday at the national U Sports men's soccer tournament.

"That's huge," Caranci said. "For me, I've never been past the quarter-finals with this team in my four years. It's amazing and I can't wait to see what we can do."

"We're in a medal game and I couldn't be more proud of these guys," Gryphon coach Keith Mason said. "They were dead on their feet. We've had a tough week and they battled and battled."

The Gryphs, who never trailed in the game, wanted to end it in regulation time, but just couldn't net the winner despite holding the advantage in territorial play.

"I thought we were trying to win the game and we were pushing and pushing and pushing," Mason said. "The ball just wouldn't bounce for us. We had scrambles. We had chances, the goalie making great saves, the ball's off the line. We just couldn't get that winner."

Caranci was judged to be Guelph's player of the game after he stopped the first shot he faced in a shootout, the save that effectively did in the Acadian Axemen in the fourth of four quarter-finals matches Thursday at the national tournament at Alumni Stadium.

He endured the stress-filled shootout and also came up with some key saves in regulation time.

"The guys helped me out through it and everyone was calming me down," Caranci said of the shootout. "The fans were really important, but it was definitely stressful and I definitely wanted to get through it."

The OUA champion Gryphs made all five of their shots in the shootout, the fifth one by Chris Jacovou assuring the Gryphs of the victory by a 3-2 count.

The teams scored twice each in regulation time and neither scored in two 15-minute extra-time periods.

"I think on the run of play, it was probably just about the right result at the end. We deserved to go through," Mason said. "I felt the whole game, we had the upper hand and we got sucker-punched after going ahead twice. That was a bit disappointing and we'll talk about that. We made a couple of bad decisions that cost us. They scored on a fantastic free kick and you know it's just one of those things."

The teams were tied 1-1 at halftime and 2-2 at the end of regulation time.

Alex Zis and Jace Kotsopoulos scored for the Gryphs while Travis Fenning and Cooper Coats tallied for Guelph.

"After winning the OUAs, I think the only thing on our minds is another gold," Caranci said. "Being in front of our home crowd is just amazing. I really enjoy it."

In Thursday's other quarter-finals, the Alberta Golden Bears defeated the York Lions 2-0 in the only game decided in regulation time, the Cape Breton Capers edged the Toronto Varsity Blues in overtime and the UQAM Citadins of Montreal slipped by the UBC Thunderbirds 3-2 in overtime.

Saturday's semifinals pit Alberta against Cape Breton at 11 a.m. and the Gryphs against UQAM at 1:30 p.m. Winners advance to the gold-medal match Sunday at 2 p.m. while losers will play in the 11 a.m. bronze-medal match.


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