Capers fall in AUS final

A fairy tale year for the Cape Breton University Capers women's soccer team came to a crushing halt on Sunday, as they suffered a 3-1  loss to teh Dalhousie Tigers in the AUS championship final.

The host and No.1 seed Capers, who were undefeated all season (10-0-3), were down 1-0 in the first half after Dalhousie’s Daphne Wallace scored in the 14th minute of play.

The Capers were reinvigorated early in the second after Allison Bell-Davies found the back of the net to tie the game 1-1.

But the tie wouldn’t last long, as Beth O’Reilly fired back to give Dalhousie a 2-1.

With only three minutes left in the game, Wallace scored again to ruin the Capers chances for a comeback.

“We had our chance to go ahead when it was 1-1, and we didn’t capitalize on the scramble, so they went the other way and scored. That’s just the way soccer goes sometimes,” said head coach Stephen (Ness) Timmons.

“(In the second half) We came out the way we wanted to come out. We were playing hard and we got the equalizer and we had the flow of the play there for a little while but then just coming back down the other end, they scored that second goal which really set us back.”

The No. 2-ranked Dalhousie squad earned a spot in the final after defeating the University of Prince Edward Island Panthers on Saturday by a 1-0 score.

This is the second consecutive AUS title for Dalhousie.

On Saturday, the Capers won their semifinal against the Saint Mary’s Huskies 3-0.

Danielle MacDonald scored twice for the Capers, while Jessica Fertado capped off the Cape Breton win with a single goal.

As runner-up in the AUS tournament, the Capers will now head to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship being hosted by the University of Victoria, Thursday to Sunday.