Cougars men’s soccer christens new field with CW Championship

Zafir Nagji, Sports Editor

At the beginning of the 2025 Canada West men’s soccer season, the MRU Cougars placed a lowly eighth in the preseason Coaches’ Poll, receiving zero first-place votes in the process. Waving goodbye to school legends like Caden Rogozinski and Miguel Da Rocha, both of whom graduated after winning Canada West gold medals in 2023 and silver medals in 2024, there were doubts about whether MRU could still be a contender for conference championships.

Two months later, the Cougars played their third Canada West Championship Final in as many years, qualifying for their third-straight trip to the U SPORTS National Tournament and bringing home their second Canada West banner on their newly renovated and turfed Stadium Field.

The man at the helm of all three of those finals was head coach Ryan Gyaki, a former professional player who instilled a culture of discipline, self-improvement and winning over the course of his 12 seasons with the Cougars. Gyaki was ecstatic after the win, reminiscing on the Cougars’ championship win two years ago in their final game on the old Stadium Field and comparing it to their first win on the new Stadium Field, as they christened it with a Canada West trophy.

“There was a lot of turmoil with the year we won it here, and then to never play on our grass field again, but for the last game to bring a championship banner, it was pretty cool,” Gyaki said. “We were a little bit concerned having never played on our own field before this championship game, so to say the last game [on the old field] and the first game [on the new field] are championship banners is an incredible feeling.”

The Cougars started their 2025 campaign on grassy Mount Royal Field 2, and two headlines caught people’s attention: How would Alex Kemsley function in his first year wearing the captain’s armband? How will former Cavalry FC player and 19-year-old rookie phenom Chanan Chanda perform in his first U SPORTS season?

To answer the first question, Kemsley was phenomenal, getting the Cougars off to a seven-game undefeated streak to open the 2025 season. Even when the Cougars were having trouble scoring, Kemsley held the defence together to earn four consecutive clean sheets, along with veteran centreback Ruben Koudelka and hard-nosed fullbacks Soo Ryu and Joe Green, the latter of whom was a rookie.

Vying for the top spot in the Prairie Division and fighting tooth-and-nail with the Dinos to secure it, the Cougars suffered their first loss of the season in their CBC Sports Canada West Game of the Week matchup against the UBC Thunderbirds, conceding a pair of goals in the process. 

The Cougars only lost two more games the rest of the way, earning two clean sheets and three wins to close out their season as the top-seeded team in the Prairie Division. That meant the Cougars would host all of their playoff games, and with the fifth-fewest goals allowed in the conference, Kemsley and co. made the MRU Cougars one of the most daunting defensive units in all of Canada West.

As far as how Chanda performed, how does winning Rookie of the Year sound? As a 19-year-old freshman, Chanda brought everything he learned from the Cavalry’s U21 and CPL teams and used it to score nine goals — second-most of any player in Canada West. 

Chanda also tied for third-most assists with five helpers, giving him 14 points at the end of the season — second-most in the conference. Even more impressive, Chanda only took 27 shots, which gave him the best shot percentage of any player with more than two shots this season at 40.7 per cent.

Stadium Field wasn’t ready to start the Canada West playoffs, so the Cougars prepared to host their quarterfinal game against the Trinity Western University Spartans on Field 2. The Spartans scored just over 20 minutes into the game, but the Cougars controlled pace and possession for almost the entire rest of the match, and in the 71st minute, Chanda tied the game up with a beautifully orchestrated penalty kick goal.

With the game tied, Gyaki made a bold decision to insert Clement Guay into the picture, who had only played six games in the 2025 regular season. A high-energy player who always wears a smile, Guay buried a close-range goal from Joe Green’s assist, putting the Cougars up by one goal in the 87th minute. MRU held on to secure the win, but had a quick turnaround as they prepared to face the University of Victoria Vikes just two days later. Once again, the Cougars conceded early as Alex Moody scored to put the visiting team up 1-0 in the 16th minute. 

This time, though, Cougars fans didn’t have to wait 70 minutes for the equaliser — the wait was closer to 70 seconds as in the 17th minute, Chanda scored the game-tying goal off an assist from Kemsley. 12 minutes later, Chanda executed perfectly on a cheeky chip shot into the top right corner of the net to give the Cougars a first-half 2-1 lead. However, they only held onto it until the 32nd minute as Matteo Hilton tied the game up at two goals apiece.

No one scored again until the 60th minute, when Hilton scored his second of the game to give Victoria a 3-2 lead. Things looked grim for MRU, but in the 90th minute, Joshua Flaksman scored a heroic equaliser, sending the game into extra time. 

Neither team found the back of the net in 30 minutes of extra time, and it took all 11 rounds of penalty kicks to determine a winner. In the end, it came down to keeper Sjard “Sharky” Strauss, who stepped up to the plate and fired home the game-winning shot in front of hundreds of fans in attendance, ensuring the Cougars would host their third consecutive Canada West Final game against the UBC Thunderbirds.

The final game was everything soccer fans could ask for. Stadium Field opened its gates once again with a new turf surface, and hundreds of fans and alumni packed the stands for the championship game. 

A fourth-minute goal from the Thunderbirds put the Cougars on the back foot early, but Ruben Koudelka, who played in all three gold medal games for the Cougars, scored the game-tying goal at the end of the 26th minute. 

Tensions built on the field as neither team could score for over an hour, and UBC grew frustrated. The Thunderbirds earned a total of four yellow cards in the game, one of which went to their head coach and Canada West Coach of the Year, Mike Mosher. 

The Thunderbirds also employed the services of Defensive Player of the Year award winner Eric Lajeunesse, who battled against Chanda over and over as the game went on. Chanda refused to take no for an answer as he and the rest of the Cougars generated opportunity after opportunity in the second half, doubling the Thunderbirds in shots. Then, on a breakaway in the 90th minute, Flaksman sent a perfect lob across the box to Chanda, who calmly deflected it off the front of his head into the bottom left corner of the net, past the outstretched hands of Thunderbird keeper Jack Garner. 

The Thunderbirds did everything they could in stoppage time to equalise, even forcing a team yellow card on the Cougars, but it wasn’t enough as MRU raised their second Canada West championship banner in three years in the first game on their new field. 

Flaksman was ecstatic after the win, having contributed to all three of his team’s Finals appearances and winning in his final year as a Cougar. His only goal now is to bring MRU its first match win and first men’s soccer medal at the U SPORTS National Tournament in Toronto.

“We didn’t want to come back to the Final and just make Nationals, we wanted to win it once again,” Flaksman said. “We’re still yet to have a medal in Nationals, so obviously I want to end my final year with a medal, hopefully win Nationals as well. I want to wear a nice pinky ring, with an MRU Cougar on it.”