Post Season opportunity stays alive as Victoria falls to TWU, 2-1
Vancouver, BC…The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades men’s soccer team were defeated tonight by the UBC Thunderbirds, 3-0, in Vancouver. The Cascades Canada West record falls to 3-5-4 for 13 points. UFV stays in the hunt for the final Pacific Division playoff berth, due to Victoria’s 2-1 loss to the TWU Spartans. Going into the final weekend of play UFV trails the Vikes by four points in the standings. UFV will have to sweep both Mount Royal and Winnipeg and hope the Vikes lose to both these Canada West opponents. Victioria’s magic number is one point to earn that final post season berth.
Tonight’s game was played in the a cold downpour and that effected the quality of the match for both teams as the ball skidded off the UBC turf all night. The Cascades came out and controlled the match for the first ten minutes testing the T-Birds goalkeeper Richard Meister. Craig Robinson and James Najman each had quality shots early and continued to challenge the very strong Thunderbirds back line. The game continued to go back and forth until UBC caught the game’s first break. At the 15 minute mark the T-Bird’s Harry Lakhan found a streaking Milad Mehrabi and the Coquitrlam native made no mistake as he flipped the ball over a diving Mark Village to give UBC the lead. UBC continued to pepper Village with shots, twice the third year Abbotsford native made saves on point blank shots. Mehrabi would score his 4th of the season at the 30 minute mark to give UBC a two goal lead at the break.
The hard hitting match continued in the second half as the referee handed out three second half yellow cards for late hits and rough tackles. The Thunderbirds continued to mountan an offensive attack and Brandon Ho would score at the 73rd minute to put the game out of reach. Meister would shut down UFV the rest of the way to earn the shutout. The T-Birds out shot UFV 21-9 as Village made seven saves in the Cascades net.
The Cascades player of the match was midfielder Jared Gibbons. The rookie anchored the Cascades middle tonight and made several key tackles to prevent UBC from shooting point blank on Village.
“I am dissapointed with the result,” commented UFV head coach Alan Errington. “We lost to a very good UBC team but our lack of offense this weekend hurt.” Errington said the Cascades would reqoup and focus on next weekend’s two matches.
UFV 0 0 = 0 (3-5-2)
UBC 2 1 = 3 (11-0-1)
Scoring
First Half
15:13 UBC Mehrabi (Lakhan)
29:42 UBC Mehrabi (Dosanjh)
Second Half
73:14 UBC Ho
Goalkeepers
UFV: Village 7 saves/ UBC: Meister 2 saves-shutout
Shots on Goal:
UFV: 9 / UBC: 21
Corner Kicks
UFV: 7/ UBC: 2
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