X-Men to face UPEI in AUS quarterfinals

The soccer X-Men finished up the AUS season with a 3-0 win and a 4-4 tie against the Memorial Seahawks this past weekend in St. John’s, NF.

On Saturday afternoon the X-Men built up a four goal lead, only to see the advantage quickly diminish in the last 20 minutes of the game. Michael Marousek, Jessie Burgins and Paul Oppneheim all scored first half goals to establish a 3-0 half-time lead, and Marousek added his second marker of the game at the 67 minute mark.

The Seahawks came back to score goals in the 77 and 79th minutes, followed by late goals at the 87 and 88 minute marks, and squeezed the three points from the X-Men. Zach Hynes scored a hat trick for Memorial with Steven Delong rounded out the scoring. Jamar Dixon had two assists for the X-Men and was named the Player of the Game.

On Sunday the X-Men again built up a lead at half-time, this time by a 2-0 margin, and were able to hold onto the win en route to a 3-0 shut out. Marousek had a four-goal weekend as he tallied two more goals for the X-Men. Burgins notched his second goal in as many days while Andrew MacDonald earned the shutout win in nets.

Jamar Dixon received two yellow cards in Sunday’s game and with the automatic game ejection will be unable to play in the X-Men’s AUS quarterfinal game.

The AUS championship is scheduled for Nov. 6-8 at Dalhousie University in Halifax. With 19 points and a 5-4-4 record, the X-Men finished in 5th spot overall, two points ahead of sixth place Moncton (5-6-2).

Cape Breton (9-1-3) grabbed top spot in the conference with 30 points, followed by Dalhousie (8-2-3) with 27 points. UNB (7-2-4) came in third with 25 points, one ahead of fourth place UPEI (8-5-0).

UNB (3) and Moncton (6) will meet in the first AUS quarterfinal game on Friday at 12 noon, while the X-Men (5) and UPEI Panthers (4) follow at 3:00 pm. StFX played one regular season game against UPEI this season and lost 1-0 in PEI. They did earn a 3-0 shutout win over the Panthers in pre-season exhibition play.

The quarterfinal winners will advance to meet either Cape Breton or Dalhousie in Saturday’s semi-finals, with the championship game scheduled for Sunday at 1:00 pm. All games will be webcast live on www.ssncanada.ca.

The AUS champion and runner-up will both advance to the CIS national championship taking place Nov. 12-15 at Trinity Western University.

The complete 2009 Subway AUS Men’s Soccer Championship schedule is as follows:

Friday, November 6th
Quarter-final #1: UNB (3rd) vs. Moncton (6th), 12:00pm
Quarter-final #2: UPEI (4th) vs. StFX (5th), 3:00pm

Saturday, November 7th
Semi-final #1: Cape Breton (1st) vs. Lowest Remaining Seed, 12:00pm
Semi-final #2: Dalhousie (2nd) vs. Highest Remaining Seed, 3:00pm

Sunday, November 8th
Championship Game: Semi-final Winners, 1:00pm