X-Men Win AUS Championship for First Time Since 1994
After a solid pre-season showing in Ontario, the X-Men had a slow start to the regular season, losing two of their first four games and posting a 3-2-1 (W-L-T) record in the first half of the 2023 campaign.
“We were riddled with injuries coming into training camp,” explained Coach Kennedy. “Probably the worst injury situation I’ve seen in my fifteen years here.”
The second half of the season was a different story. Key players returned to full fitness, and the X-Men finished with six consecutive wins to close the season, including two convincing shutout wins on the road at Moncton and UNB.
“We put it all together in the last two weeks, especially our defending,” recalls Kennedy. “I could not be prouder of how we worked for each other and put the team first.”
The stellar defending continued into the AUS playoffs, where the X-Men earned two more shutouts: a 4-0 semi-final win over UNB and a 2-0 final win over CBU. With the win, the X-Men advanced to the U SPORTS National Championship as the AUS top seed.
The 2023 X-Men, one of the strongest StFX soccer teams of all time, received several major awards at the national level, a testament to their individual and collective excellence. Kyle Cordeiro (Oakville, ON) was a 1st Team All-Canadian selection, Logan Rieck (Cambridge, ON) was a 2nd Team All-Canadian selection for the second year in succession, and freshmen Isaac VanWychen (Middle Musquodoboit, NS) was selected to the U SPORTS All-Rookie Team. At the conference level, five X-Men received all-star recognition. AUS First Team All-Stars included Cordeiro, Rieck, and defender Max Bodurtha (Halifax, NS). AUS Second Team All-Stars included defender Luke Green (Fall River, NS) and attacker Dyan Vil (Ottawa, ON). Cordeiro was AUS Most Valuable Player, VanWychen was AUS Rookie of the Year, and Coach Kennedy was selected AUS Coach of the Year.
Of special note, in 2023, the X-Men had their first Canadian Premier League draft pick when the Halifax Wanderers selected Max Bodurtha 13th overall.