Antigonish, NS – In a hotly contested match, the U SPORTS No. 2 ranked Cape Breton Capers defeated the No. 9 ranked STFX X-Men 3-2 Friday evening at STFX Stadium.

With the win the Capers improve to 6-0-2 atop of the AUS standings, while the X-Men drop to 5-2-1.

The same two teams played to a 1-1 draw in Sydney last Thursday and tonight's match was another close affair.

In the opening half, Ze Cunha (Cascais, Portugal) had the best scoring chance for the Capers in the 14^th minute as his low shot hit the post of the X net, but it was STFX midfielder Carson Ripoll (New Glasgow, NS) who was the first to find the back of the net.

After an X-Men throw-in, the ball made its way to the feet of Ripoll who turned and blasted a low shot past Capers goalkeeper Daniel Clarke (Milton Keynes, England). The goal came in the 20^th minute to give the home team an early 1-0 lead.

Owen Sheppard (St. John's, NF) evened the game in the 32^nd minute. He took a long pass threaded through from midfielder Max Piepgrass (Calgary, AB), sprinted up the sideline then beat STFX keeper William Veinot (Bedford, NS) with a hard low shot.

The Capers went up 2-1 on a goal from Cian Lynch (Dublin, Ireland) in the 44^th minute off a pass from Jamie Watson (Kirkcaidy, Scotland) in close inside the 18-yard box.

The 2-1 score held up at halftime.

The second half was a physical affair, as are all games between these fierce AUS rivals, as yellow cards were plentiful.

X-Men midfielder Kyle Cordeiro (Oakville, ON) scored his fifth goal of the season in the 61^st minute to tie the game up 2-2 on an unassisted effort after sustained X pressure in the Capers end.

The teams continued to battle in exciting end to end action as each squad was looking for the go-ahead goal.

That goal came in the 68^th minute as Lynch scored his second goal of the game, a header off a free kick from Watson from 20 yards out.

The X-Men continued to battle for the equalizer but ran out of time as the Capers closed out the one-goal victory.

Lynch received Subway player of the game honours for his two-goal performance. Cordeiro was the STFX player of the game.

Next on the AUS schedule sees the Capers travel to Charlottetown on Sunday for a 3:15 pm game against UPEI.

The X-Men will be back in action on Wednesday, October 19th when they travel to Halifax for a 7:15 pm game against Saint Mary's.

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Recap courtesy Krista McKenna, STFX Communications