A look at CBU’s Men’s Soccer after Week 1 competition 

A look at CBU's Men's Soccer after Week 1 competition 

By IAIN KING 

University of New Brunswick 1 Cape Breton 3 

UPEI 0 Cape Breton 1 

CAPERS Head Coach Deano Morley hailed his team's grit and guile as they came through a potentially treacherous opening AUS weekend with two wins and a six-point haul that puts them top of the league after their first 2 games. 

The CAPERS dug deep to recover from a rocky start under the Friday Night Lights in New Brunswick and secured a courageous 3-1 win with goals from Jacob Spizzirri, Elijah Le and new signing Harvey Hughes. 

Coach Morley's new-look side were just five minutes into Season 2024 when pressure from the UNB Reds forced a turnover and CAPERS defender Le was adjudged to have tripped towering striker Ehab Moustafa in the box. 

The excellent Luke Rosettani slotted the penalty down the middle beyond Daniel Clarke and we had a game on in front of a passionate home crowd. 

"We got caught out on an early mistake and paid the price, but we responded really well," Deano reflected. "I felt we were dominant in the first half, but we looked open to counterattacks. At half-time we made a couple of tweaks and tactical adjustments and we were more balanced." 

The CAPERS equalised five minutes from the interval when Nationals MVP Owen Sheppard cut inside to find Spizzirri raiding from the back rifled a 20-yarder in off the post to tie it up and open his account for the season. 

The crucial go-ahead goal showed the creative menace Hughes will bring with his wand of a left foot as he swept a curling corner to the back post for Sheppard to cleverly head back across goal and Le leaped highest to nod it home. 

Hughes wrapped up the game in stoppage time when a mistake on a clearance outside the box from Reds keeper Mahmoud Moustafa saw the ball break off influential CAPERS sub Nikolai Scheurenbrand and Englishman Harvey fired home the clincher.   

"Harvey had an impact straight away at UNB, a role in the second goal and then he finished the game off well," stressed Deano. "Lessons? If we are going to play our football in this system, then we need to learn how important the counter-press is. On balance, though, I think a lot of teams are going to go to UNB and struggle. That was a big three points from a challenging road game." 

"It was a big occasion game for UNB and I thought it was a real touch of class that they took time to acknowledge our National title win before kick-off. That meant a lot and I thank them for that." 

In Game Two of the new season at UPEI Panthers on Sunday, Owen Sheppard's 36th minute header from an Amadou Bayo cross was enough to seal all three points after he had earlier seen a penalty kick crash back off the underside of the bar. 

"The UPEI game was a real good test," said Deano. "Lewis Page had them very well organised as always and they have some excellent new recruits. They are a team that is going to shock a few people. 

"We moved the ball well and we got a lot of our squad into the game. We made five changes at half-time, and this is the time of year to see who can perform. We need to learn to be more clinical and finish off our chances, if you leave teams hanging around at 1-0 then late in the game you are scrambling when you don't need to be. 

"We missed a penalty and several other opportunities; we have work to do in the final third of the field. It didn't quite click how we would have wanted but we will work hard on that before Home Opener weekend."