Providence Pilots fall to Brandon Bobcats for 3rd straight year in MCAC soccer finals

The Providence Pilots women’s soccer team continues to be snake-bitten when it comes to Manitoba competition.

The team lost their third consecutive final to the Brandon University Bobcats 3-0 Oct. 26. The loss marked their fourth straight year losing in the last game of the Manitoba season. The Pilots haven’t claimed a Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference title since 2014.

It was a much more lopsided affair this year, as the Bobcats scored right before half-time on their home field and added on insurance mid-way through the second half. The previous two seasons have come down to the final kicks of the game with 2-1 final scores.

Ste Genevieve’s Emilie Dornez, who played her high school soccer at Gabrielle-Roy, scored in Brandon’s 14-0 blowout semi-final win over the Canadian Mennonite University Blazers.

Brandon will represent Manitoba at the Canadian Colleges Athletic Conference women’s soccer nationals, which will be hosted in Red Deer this year.

The Blazers had much better luck in the men’s side of the bracket, toppling the top-ranked Bobcats on their home turf 2-1 in extra time.

Brandon picked up big 6-0 and 2-0 wins over the Blazers this season, but MCAC rookie of the year Nicholas Pavao netted a penalty shot in the 115th to give the visitors the win.

Men’s nationals are in Saint-Lambert, Quebec.

The Pilots’ home MCAC volleyball schedule kicks off Oct. 31 in Niverville.

Previous years both Providence soccer teams would play in the National Christian Colleges Athletic Association’s division two North region qualifier in the States, but the Pilots have left the NCCAA.

Providence’s women’s soccer team were division 2 national champions in the NCCAA in 2022.