Brent Mutis, CapU Sport Information & Compliance Officer
- Team MVP – Merlin Fisk
- PACWEST All-Stars – Merlin Fisk, Nima Moazeni Zadeh
- PACWEST Player of the Year – Nima Moazeni Zadeh
Goalscoring for the 2021 Capilano Blues men’s soccer team was not a problem in the early going and then suddenly it was as the team lurched to a 3-6 finish in the PACWEST, out of the playoff picture.
With seven goals through the first two games of the season, both wins, CapU looked like it had an offensive machine that might need to tighten up defensively to ensure continued success but then the goals dried up and during a six-game losing streak, they managed just four tallies which cost them a chance at the postseason.
Rain forced the Blues to postpone their Sept. 18 PACWEST home opener and they wound up starting on the road at Douglas College, putting on a scoring clinic led by Jeremy Monn-Djasngar and Nima Moazeni Zadeh in a 4-3 win over the Royals. Two big, skilled forwards, Monn-Djasngar and Moazeni Zadeh found chemistry right away, the former setting up the latter for the opening goal of the season.
Moazeni Zadeh then had a goal for the highlight reels when he corralled a bouncing ball just past midfield and drilled a long-range shot that went over the head of the keeper, caught by surprise well off his line by the drive from distance.
While memorable, it turned out to be possibly the high point of the season for the Blues. Even in that opening game, after building a four-goal lead, Capilano barely held on for the win as Douglas stormed back in the dying moments in a 4-3 final.
Monn-Djasngar was the key again in the Blues first home game of the season, a 3-1 win over visiting Langara, where he scored twice on three shots on goal. Eric Swanson set up the other Blues tally on the day, a long pass that sent Moazeni Zadeh in on goal alone and he made no mistake.
That was the end of the good times for Capilano for much of the season. A road loss Sept. 26 to Vancouver Island University (VIU) was followed by clean sheets at the hands of Douglas and Langara and then one more loss to each of those opponents.
Carrying a 2-6 mark into the season’s final game, CapU managed a 2-0 victory over VIU on Oct. 24 to conclude the season on a positive note. Jared Crane and Moazeni Zadeh had the Blues goals while Colby Moore made three saves for his first PACWEST clean sheet.
The three wins Capilano picked up on the season were not enough to get into the PACWEST postseason as VIU claimed the final spot there with a 4-4-1 mark.
Weather was a significant factor in the Capilano home schedule as rain made Lillooet Park – the only natural grass surface in the PACWEST – unplayable on several dates. The damp fall conditions caused the cancellation or postponement of four Blues home games and in efforts to get the season in, CapU’s athletics department booked turf fields at UBC and at Mulgrave School in West Vancouver just to ensure all matches were played.
With his PACWEST-leading five goals, Moazeni Zadeh was named the conference Player of the Year as well as a CCAA All-Canadian.
That makes three of the past four years a Blues player has been named Player of the Year with Keith Jackson’s back-to-back honours in 2017 and 2018.
