Monday, November 13, 2023
by Thomas Lal

PORTLAND, Ore. – It’s not every day that you win a championship. And it’s even less common to win two championships on the same day, but that’s exactly what the Simon Fraser men’s and women’s soccer teams pulled off on Saturday to be named the GNAC Teams of the Week.

Coming into the day, the Red Leafs men knew that they needed a win to definitively secure the title and did just that, clinching their eighth conference title, and their first since 2018, by taking a resounding 5-1 victory over Northwest Nazarene in Burnaby. The result meant that SFU finished 0.02 points per game ahead of second-place Western Oregon in the standings.

The GNAC standings for 2023 are ordered based on points per game (total points earned divided by conference games played) due to two “no contests” because of weather related cancellations.

“Always a tremendous honor to be named team of the week,” head coach Clint Schneider said. “It is even better when it’s with our female counterparts. It was a very special day for our department and both teams and we are excited about representing the GNAC and SFU in the NCAA Tournament.”

The Red Leafs came out of the gates firing on all cylinders and scoring almost immediately against the Nighthawks with freshman forward Michael Hennessy netting his first goal of the morning in just the fourth minute. Hennessy would make it the second multi-goal performance of his young career with his second goal of the day just under 11 minutes later on an assist from GNAC Men’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Week Devin O’Hea.

O’Hea would score himself in the 21st minute, followed by junior midfielder Hamish Ogden’s third goal of the season in the 25th minute to put SFU up 4-0 well before the half. The Nighthawks would get one back in the 67th minute but freshman Kyle Torresan re-established the four-goal advantage in the 76th minute with the first goal of his collegiate career.

“My expectation is to win every game we’re in, no matter who we play against,” Schneider said as he looks toward the NCAA Championships. “Our guys, the belief in the group is no matter what state (the opponents), are from, no matter what their record is, our guys believe they’re the best team on the pitch every time they play.”

Meanwhile, in Ellensburg, the Simon Fraser women claimed their first GNAC title in program history by defeating reigning conference and Division II champion Western Washington, 2-1, at the GNAC Women’s Soccer Championships. The program’s results at the tournament marked the first victories of any kind at the tournament, culminating in the final win.  

“I’m so proud of the group,” interim head coach Carlo Basso said following the final match. “And then to finish off the game the way we did, I thought we handled and coped the last 10 minutes so tremendously well. So I’m proud of the group and just really can’t say enough kind words about Western (Washington) and what they’ve done, in creating their tradition. And especially our group, we’re a program that wants to be elite. We’re a program that wants to grow. And today we made a huge statement by winning our first conference title.”

The tournament began with the first of two major upsets for the Red Leafs as they powered past regular season champion Seattle Pacific with a 4-2 victory on Thursday. That game was highlighted by a trio of goals scored in the first half, including the opening tally by junior forward Mikayla Tupper in the third minute. Simon Fraser then picked up two more goals within four minutes with junior midfielder Kate Cartier scoring in the 39th minute before sophomore defender Noémie Ntumba Merlen scored the first goal of her collegiate career in the 43rd minute.

Tupper scored her second goal of the game in the 73rd minute, putting the finishing touches on Simon Fraser’s first ever victory at the GNAC Women’s Soccer Championships. The win also marked the first time that a No. 4 seed has upset the No. 1 seed at the tournament and the first time Seattle Pacific has been defeated since Sept. 9 against Chico State.

On Saturday, the Red Leafs completed their dream run to the GNAC title by defeating Western Washington 2-1. They came out of the gates flying once again, this time scoring in just the second minute as Isabella Muzzolini buried her first look on net after a Sarah Caravatta initial shot.

The Vikings refused to go down without a fight, scoring in the 58th minute to level the match at 1-1. In the end, it was sophomore forward Raegan Mackenzie who scored her first goal of the season at the biggest possible moment to be named the tournament MVP and put the Red Leafs up 2-1 in the 81st minute off an assist from Kaiden Sherwood.

Both the Simon Fraser men’s and women’s soccer teams will keep their eyes on today’s NCAA Selection show to see where the next step of the journey takes them after securing the conference's automatic berths to the NCAA Championships. The women’s selection show will begin at 3:30 p.m. (PST) and will be followed by the men’s selection show at 4 p.m. (PST).