UFV victorious!
The UFV Cascades men’s soccer team had a roaringly successful weekend on March 8-9, winning the inaugural “Kwantlen Cup” hosted by Kwantlen Polytechnic University, at the Newton Sports Complex in Surrey.
On Saturday, UFV defeated Kwantlen by a score of 2-0. The first goal came from Kree Byrne in the 22nd minute on an assist from Justin Sekhon. Dylan Jordan scored the 2nd goal on an assist from Mark Village in the 75th minute.
UFV was in control of the game from start to finish, although credit has to be given to Kwantlen for their spirit and hard work to make UFV battle for the full 90 minutes. Cascade keeper Arturo Ortiz got the shutout for UFV in goal.
The players did not have much time to recover after a tough week in which they played seven games in seven days due to a backlog of league rescheduling after the bad weather.
On Sunday, the Cascades went up against two time national CIS champions, the UBC Thunderbirds, in the tournament final. The T-Birds had beaten the Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack 2-0 on Saturday and fielded a very strong squad for the final.
Battered and tired, yet still defiant, UFV players re-grouped and put in a very professional performance to win the game on penalties.
In a very tight, hard fought game, UFV more than held their own and went into the half time break with the score at 0-0. UBC had few chances, thanks to a well-disciplined performance from all players.
Colton O’Neill gave UFV the lead in the 83rd minute of the game. The ball was won in midfield and Colton seized the opportunity to get forward and beat the UBC goalkeeper with a header in the six yard box.
UBC would tie the game with a disputed penalty in the 92nd minute. UFV goalkeeper Mark Village was deemed to have fouled the UBC forward in the penalty area and was subsequently sent off.
UBC scored from the penalty to tie the game, while the ref blew his whistle to mark the end of the game almost immediately afterwards.
Arturo Ortiz would come in to replace Village as the game went straight to a “Penalty Shoot-Out”.
Five players were selected to take the penalties: Colton O’Neill, Sahib Phagura, Ryan Liddiard, Daniel Davidson and Dylan Jordan.
All of the UFV players scored on their penalties and Arturo Ortiz made a big save on one of the UBC players, to win the game for UFV.
“A fantastic performance and result against the two time CIS National Champions,” said Cascades coach Alan Errington. “Well deserved, on the day. Even though the players showed signs of fatigue towards the end of the match, they worked through the pain to secure the win.”
The Cascades will continue their preseason in the University of Victoria’s “Keg Classic” tournament on March 22-23.
(With files from Alan Errington)
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