OSHAWA – Three different players scored as the fourth-seeded York Lions tripled No.5 McGill to win bronze at the U SPORTS Final Eight men's soccer championship at Vaso's Field on the campus of Ontario Tech, Sunday.
 
The Redbirds, who were looking for their ninth U SPORTS medal (second bronze), opened the scoring in the seventh minute on a long ball headed down to the top of the box and played through by Mujtaba Mirhasan onto the foot of Nathan Yee, who poked it past Lions keeper Alessio Carbone to make it 1-0 for McGill. 
 
However, York responded robustly. Yigal Bruk tied the game in the 29th minute with a header off a corner kick, assisted by Ryan Robinson. Gianluca Condello delivered a decisive volley later in the 36th minute from a collaboration between Zeppieri and Robinson.
 
After a couple near misses, the Lions found the equalizer and eventually, the go-ahead goal, on a pair of set pieces. First, a corner by Robinson was buried by Bruk for his second of the championships to square things at 1-1 in the 29th minute. 
 
Seven minutes later, Condello converted another corner, this one by Luca Accettola. The ball into the box ended up on the near side to Christian Zeppieri. He sent it back into the middle for Condello, who chested it down and put it home to give the Lions their first lead of the day. York took that lead into halftime. 
 
McGill nearly managed to draw even in the 52nd minute on a shot from Yee that banged the bar and rolled just wide of the far post. Minutes after that near miss, the Lions added to their advantage. 
 
They extended their lead on a nifty passing play between Accettola, Bruk and Zeppieri. Accettola weaved through the McGill defence and laid one down for Bruk, who played it over to Zeppieri, and the defending U SPORTS player of the year made no mistake to give his side some insurance in the 58th minute, putting them up 3-1. 
 
The Redbirds nearly narrowed York's lead in the 63rd minute on a ball into the box and onto the foot of Kyle Azuma, but he sent it just high over the bar. Then, just over a minute later, McGill team captain Stuart Klenner had a chance on the near side, but Carbone came over to challenge and make the save. 
 
Those were the last chances for McGill, as the Lions played a structured final quarter of the match to preserve the lead and earn their first medal since 2015 and first bronze since 1996. 
 
McGill 'keeper Ludovyck Ciociola started for the third time after missing the previous four with an upper-body injury. He was credited with seven saves in a losing cause.
 
Players of the game were both midfielders, namely Zeppieri for York and Yannick Laurent for McGill. Both Laurent and teammate Ibrahim Chami were named to the All-Tournament Team.
 
The gold medal game was a 1-0 victory for UBC – which scored in the last-minute of injury time – over former McGill coach Pat Raimondo's Montreal Carabins.  The 2025 national championship will be hosted by the Toronto Varsity Blues. 
 
REDBIRDS RAP: McGill finished with a 10-7-4 record overall, including a 5-4-3 third-place finish in the RSEQ conference and a 2-3 record in post-season play... Freshman Ibrahim Chami played the full 90 minutes to complete his remarkable first season. An honouree on the U SPORTS All-Rookie squad, he played every minute of all 12 regular season games and all five post-season contests… Martin Baudelet, a starting defender with the Redbirds, missed the game as he was granted previous permission to fly overseas to his native country Malaysia for a national team training camp.  He played the full 120 minutes in the tourney opening win against Ontario Tech and 81 minutes day in the loss against UBC…. Among the veterans expected to graduate is Martin Baudelet (BA '25; Economics & Communications), Kyle Azuma (BA '25; Economics), and Eric Koerich (BA '25; Economics) and Nassim Kemel (Certificate in Applied Cybersecurity).
 
SCORING SUMMARY
 
FIRST HALF
1. McG: 6:06 - Nathan Yee (Mujtaba Mirhasan)
2. YRK:  28:35 - Yigal Bruk (Ryan Robinson)
3. YRK: 35:56 - Gianluca Condello (Ryan Robinson)
 
SECOND HALF
4. YRK: 57:07 - Christian Zeppieri (Yigal Bruk)
 
TOURNAMENT RESULTS & STANDINGS
 

CHAMPIONSHIP AWARDS

R.W. PUGH FAIR PLAY AWARD:        STFX X-Men

TOURNAMENT ALL-STAR TEAM:

TOURNAMENT MVP:                  Joven Mann, UBC

SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
CELL: 514-983-7012
E-MAIL:earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca