VANCOUVER - A pair of late goals from Derrick Bassi and Lucas Ferritto propelled the SFU Clan (NCAA Div. II) to a 2-0 victory over the UBC Thunderbirds (CIS) in the 2010 edition of the Adidas Soccer Express Challenge Cup. SFU now leads the all-time challenge cup series 13-10-4.
Bassi opened the scoring in the 80th minute, knocking home a loose ball from inside the UBC six-yard box after Sang Hwang's free kick from 30 yards wasn't cleared by the T-Birds.
UBC responded with their two best chances of the second half as both
Tyson Keam and
Ashley Ankiewicz had good looks at the Clan net with headers but neither put SFU keeper Hide Ozawa into much difficulty.
Ferritto put to rest any notions of a T-Bird comeback with a goal in the 87th minute, finishing off a counter attack with a low strike from inside the penalty area.
T-Bird head coach
Mike Mosher was disappointed with his team's effort, especially since they opened the Canada West regular season on Friday with a resounding 3-0 win over their other Lower Mainland rivals, the TWU Spartans.
"We didn't have the work ethic today that we did in the win over Trinity. Our work rate and determination didn't match theirs," said Mosher.
Although SFU had more at stake than UBC in the result, this game counted towards the Clan's NCAA season record, Mosher didn't think that should have made any difference.
"Look, this is a rivalry game and you're playing SFU. You always want to win those types of games but we just didn't perform."
Neither squad had much success getting the ball down and controlling play as both sides settled into a tight but up tempo affair right from the first whistle.
The first clear cut chance of the match wasn't until the 71st minute when SFU's Gagan Josan rocketed a shot from 25 yards out only to have it pushed over the bar by UBC 'keeper
Zach Kalthoff.
That was one of two saves by Kalthoff on the afternoon while Ozawa had four stops for the clean sheet.
UBC returns to the pitch next weekend at Thunderbird Park as they welcome the Fraser Valley Cascades and Victoria Vikes for a pair of matches under the lights on Friday and Saturday night.
-30-
