TORONTO, Ont. – There will be a new national champion in U SPORTS men's soccer. Saturday night (Oct. 24) at York Lions Stadium in Toronto, the Guelph Gryphons men's soccer team pulled off one of the biggest postseason results in program history, defeating the reigning national champion York Lions by a score of 3-1. The Gryphons, who entered Saturday night's contest as the No. 5-seed in the OUA West, were able to jump out to an early 2-0 lead on goals from
Jacob Cabral and
Aidan O'Keeffe.
Cabral, a fourth-year midfielder from Milton, opened the scoring in the 20th minute, curling in a perfectly place shot from outside the 18-yard-box to put the Gryphons up 1-0 against the No. 2-ranked team in the country. Three minutes later, the Gryphons would extend the lead to 2-0, when third-year forward
Aidan O'Keeffe was able to take advantage of a goalkeeping error from York's Michael Williams, pouncing on a heavy touch by the keeper and sliding home the second goal of the game into an open net to give the visiting Gryphons a 2-0 lead.
Later in the 1st half, the Lions were awarded a penalty, and handed the ball to one of the top players in the country in Christian Zeppieri. But the reigning U SPORTS championship tournament MVP sailed his penalty high, allowing Guelph to maintain a 2-0 lead heading into the locker room at the half. Early in the 2nd half, the York Lions would once again be awarded a penalty, and this time would convert from the spot, with standout striker Anthony Morano trimming the deficit to 2-1. But the Gryphons would restore their two-goal lead less than 10 minutes later thanks to U of G's star fifth-year attacker,
Ambrose Tinmouth. After the Gryphons were able to force a York turnover at midfield, Tinmouth was able to run onto the end of a through ball and calmly walk around the keeper before finishing with his left foot to give Guelph a 3-1 lead. The only piece of bad news for the Gryphons on the memorable night came in the final minutes of regulation, with
Ambrose Tinmouth receiving his second yellow card of the night and being sent off with a red card, meaning the Gryphons will be without their star attacker for their OUA semifinal.
The Gryphons will now look to continue their impressive postseason run and will turn their attention to the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks for the OUA semifinal on Saturday, October 31. The Ridgebacks defeated the Trent Excalibur in their quarterfinal match. While the other two teams remaining in the OUA are the McMaster Marauders and TMU Bold.
Kickoff between the Gryphons and Ridgebacks on Saturday, Oct. 31 in Oshawa has yet to be determined, but check gryphons.ca for the latest updates. This marks the first time since 2021 in which the Gryphons have reached the OUA semifinal stage (with the team winning the OUA title in 2021, the third conference title in program history).
