THIS WEEK: UBC (1-0) vs UFV (1-1) on Friday, September 17, 7:15 p.m., Thunderbird Park -- UBC (1-0) vs Victoria (0-2) on Saturday, September 18, 7:15 p.m., Thunderbird Park
LAST WEEK: UBC won conference season opener 3-0 vs Trinity Western, lost exhibition game to SFU 2-0
A LOOK AT THE THUNDERBIRDS
The T-Birds started the new campaign off with a convincing 3-0 win against arguably their biggest rivals, last year's CIS bronze medalists, the Trinity Western Spartans. Topping a result like that won't be easy, but a win this week against Victoria, another highly ranked rival school, would certainly come close.
The defensive unit that allowed a conference-low seven goals-against last year got along just fine without former All-Canadian team captain
Graham Smith, who graduated in the off-season. Defender
Jason Gill, UBC's new captain, helped the T-Birds pick up where they left off last year with a shutout on opening night, giving first year keeper
Zach Kalthoff his first clean sheet in his conference debut. Two other defenders, Matthew Allard and
Ashley Ankiewicz, also contributed to the offensive effort with one goal each after midfielder
Marco Visintin opened the scoring with a penalty kick late in the first half.
Holding last year's most potent offensive squad off the scoresheet is impressive, but what the T-Birds' own offence accomplished may be more cause for celebration than the shutout. Although they finished atop the table last season, the 'Birds averaged just over 1.3 goals per game before being shutout by Alberta in the playoffs. Canada West All-Star
Tyson Keam and
Devin Gunenc tied for the team lead in goals with four each last year, and will need to keep finding the back of the net on a regular basis this season, but first years
Navid Mashinchi and Gagandeep Dosanjh from the Whitecaps Residency program should also provide a big boost to the T-Bird attack. Dosanjh played all 90 minutes at forward against Trinity Western, registering one shot and drawing the foul that led to Visintin's penalty kick goal, and Maschini started at midfield, picking up one assist on a free kick set piece.
A LOOK AT THE CASCADES
After a 4-8-2 finish last year, the Cascades have to be happy about the way they started off the new season. A 2-0 win over Lethbridge was the perfect way to start the year with some confidence in their defence after the Cascades were tied for the second-most goals-against in the conference last year. That confidence didn't last long however, as the Cascades were downed 4-2 by Calgary in their second game last week.
On the plus side, the Cascades scored two goals in each of their first two games, which puts them on pace to double their offensive output from last season. It may just be the first week of the conference season, but any signs of life on offence are important for the Cascades as they gear up to face a UBC side that has boasted the toughest defence in Canada West for the last two years.
The bad news from week one is that defensive breakdowns are evidently still a problem for this team. The Cascades allowed two or more goals in half of their conference games last season, putting a lot of pressure on an offence that simply couldn't keep up with their opponents. Second year midfielder Sasa Plavsic already has two goals and an assist to his name this year, and freshman midfielder Juan Pablo Mora Perea also found the scoresheet last week, so there are some young bright spots on the Cascade attack, but the defence will have to be more consistent for this team to be a real contender.
A LOOK AT THE VIKES
The defending Canada West champion Vikes were the first victims of a dangerous looking Calgary offence that scored a combined seven goals against UFV and Victoria last week. The Vikes took their medicine in the form of a 3-0 loss to Calgary in the opener, and followed that up with a 1-0 loss to Lethbridge in their second game.
Two things stand out from the Vikes' first week of action. First, their offence, which was second best in the conference last year, failed to find the scoresheet at all through two games. Second, they gave up a total of four goals to Calgary and Lethbridge, who were the worst and second-worst offences in the league last year. Victoria was ranked fifth in the CIS heading into opening weekend, and to say their results don't live up to their ranking would be an understatement.
That ranking may have been overly optimistic though, considering how different this year's edition of the Vikes is from the 2009 team. Third year striker Jordie Oberg takes over the captain's arm band for a team that graduated 12 players from last year, and is now dominated by first and second year players. Canada West All-Star defender Bobby Eng led the team in minutes played in his rookie season, so that pool of youth isn't without talent, but this young team will have to learn to overcome adversity quickly if they want to put a rough start to the season behind them and get back to defending their conference title.
-30-
