page_title: Toronto Varsity Blues men's soccer
section_title: 1972: First visit to the national championships
hierarchical_section_title: Toronto Varsity Blues men's soccer / History / Bob Nicol (1969–1980) / 1972: First visit to the national championships
caption_attribution_description: English: Varsity Blues defeated York University 4-0 in the 1971 OUAA Final at York University
context_page_description: The Toronto Varsity Blues Men's Soccer, also known as the Blues, is a Canadian intercollegiate soccer team representing the University of Toronto.
  The program is classified in the Ontario University Athletics division of U Sports, and the team competes in the East Division of the OUA. The Varsity Blues play their home games at Varsity Stadium, a 4000-seat stadium situated in downtown Toronto on the University of Toronto-St. George Campus.
  Throughout the team's history, the Varsity Blues have captured one National Championship in 1988. The 1988 National Championship team has since been inducted into the Varsity Blues Hall of Fame. The Blues won 49 provincial OUA Championships with the most recent one in 2010.
context_section_description: The 1972 squad was a mix of old and new players: Mario Da Rosa, Vito Polera, Vince Ierullo, Bob Cazzola, Tim Burns, Joe Dattolico, Bruno Bruni as well as a Peter Hillier, Ian Harris, Eugene Konarsky, Ed Cortes and John Cobby. By 1972, the OUAA soccer East division included Ryerson, Queen's, York, Trent, Carleton while the West was made up of McMaster, Toronto, Waterloo, Western, Guelph, Laurentian and Brock. Captained by Cazzorla, the Blues opened the season with a 3-0 win against Waterloo at Varsity Stadium. After five games played, the Blues had won three and drawn two and had only allowed 2 goals against. Eight games in, they had six wins and two draws and still only 3 goals against. The crucial game against McMaster was played at Varsity Stadium — the winning team assured of the West division title. The Marauders had 40 goals forward, the most in the league, while the Blues had the least against. The Blues won 1-0. In the final weekend of the regular season, the Blues defeated Guelph and Laurentian to finish atop the West division table with a 9-0-2 (W-L-T) record and 31 goals for and 7 against. The following weekend, on a York University field described by The Varsity (newspaper) as just "rain and mud", the Blues defeated York in the OUAA final and clinched a Nationals semi-final berth against Alberta. The Varsity said that "even York's twelfth man on the field — a huge defensive puddle halfway between the York goal and the centre line — offered little aid [to York in limiting the 4-0 Blues lead]". 
  In the Blues first ever appearance at CIAU Nationals, they were defeated 2-0 by the Alberta Golden Bears at York University. This was their first defeat of the season. The Toronto school newspaper mentioned that the Blues had a "their first flat day [of the season]" and that "Alberta deserved its victory". The Golden Bears would go on to win in the final and become the 1972 National Champions.
caption: Blues defeat York University 4-0 at York University in the 1972 OUAA Final
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