VANCOUVER — Ryan Gauld scored the matchwinner off a penalty in the 65th minute as the Vancouver Whitecaps beat CF Montreal 2-1 to ensure the Canadian Championship trophy stays on the West Coast for another year.

Montreal scored its lone goal in the 83rd minute after Vancouver defender Tristan Blackmon failed to clear the ball in his team’s box, allowing Montreal forward Sunusi Ibrahim to tuck it past goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka.

The Whitecaps opened the scoring 57 minutes in off an error from Montreal goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois, which allowed striker Brian White to slot the ball home.

It’s the second straight year the Whitecaps have claimed the Canadian Championship.

Up until the breakthrough goal, Vancouver had been denied by Sirois’s several acrobatic saves, including one where he stopped what looked like a sure goal with his feet mid-dive.

The Whitecaps outshot Montreal 20-9 with the Quebec side leaving it until late to threaten Takaoka’s goal.

Canada men’s head coach John Herdman presented the Best Young Canadian Player Award to midfielder Ali Ahmed, who missed the match as he continues his recovery from a concussion.

Canada Soccer interim general secretary and former national team player Jason de Vos presented the George Gross Most Valuable Player Award to Julian Gressel, who recorded an assist on White’s opener.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 7, 2023.

The Canadian Press

TORONTO — American poet Roger Reeves has won the Griffin Poetry Prize for “Best Barbarian”

He took home the $130,000 award at a ceremony in Toronto on Wednesday evening.

Reeves is also the recipient of a Whiting Award and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.

The Griffin judges praise “Best Barbarian” for charting “the ruptures and violences enacted across time and space — particularly against Black humanity — while leaning always toward beauty.”

This is the first year the Griffin Poetry Prize has combined its categories for homegrown and international poets into a single global purse.

The other shortlisted works, which each receive $10,000, are “The Hurting Kind” by Ada Limón, “The Threshold” by Egyptian-Canadian Iman Mersal and translated by Robyn Creswell, “Exculpatory Lilies” by British Columbia-based writer Susan Musgrave and “Time Is a Mother” by Ocean Vuong.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 7, 2023.

The Canadian Press