Abbotsford — The UFV Cascades men’s soccer team (0-2-0) suffered a 1-0 defeat today at the hands of the UBC Thunderbirds (2-0-0), adding another chapter to a rivalry that has only grown over the past few seasons. It was a physical match from the first whistle as the Cascades gave their opponents all they could handle, yet still came up short on the score-sheet by the narrowest of margins.
The tempo for the game was set early. An aggressive tackle in the first 10 seconds of play earned UBC’s Harry Lakhan a yellow card, which was quickly followed by another UBC yellow a little more than a minute later. Both squads pushed the limits and sat a frenetic pace amidst lightning-fast counter-attacks and daring slide tackles.
Cascades striker James Najman put in an impressive performance at the front of the UFV formation, and twice broke through to volley blistering shots at the UBC net. Thunderbirds keeper Ante Boskovic was equal to the challenge, keeping the game scoreless with brilliant decisions in the last extremity. At the other end of the field UBC striker Niall Cousens provided the Thunderbirds offensive with excellent ball distribution and a formidable 6-4 base of operations.
The Thunderbirds finally found a way through the Cascades defense in the 80th minute. UFV keeper Alex Skrzeta left his net to stop a developing play with a sliding tackle, and the rebound came to midfielder Navid Mashinchi just inside the Cascades’ box. Mashinchi placed a beautiful shot to the lower right corner of the net that beat an out-of-position Skrzeta as well as a UFV defender on the goal line — the deciding touch of the game.
Boskovic made eight saves for the Thunderbirds, while Skrzeta made three for UFV.
“I thought we played really well, and thought we didn’t deserve to lose,” said Cascades head coach Alan Errington. “I thought we deserved at least a point. We played the two-time national champions and held them for 80 minutes, and we had a number of chances of our own.”
“That said, I’m really happy with the way we played. We passed well, we defended well, and we attacked well. I told the players today, ‘It’s not how we start the season, it’s how we end it.’”
The Cascades will travel to UBCO this Friday (Sept 12), while UBC will host UNBC on the same day. All games will be streamed with live video and stats at http://canadawest.tv
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