VANCOUVER – Three goals in a 15 minute span in the opening half turned out to be all the UBC Thunderbirds needed on Saturday, as they rolled over the Saskatchewan Huskies 5-2 to send their seniors off on a high note in the last home game of the regular season.
Shortly after having a goal waved off on an offsides call, the T-Birds began their early scoring barrage with a cross from Gagandeep Dosanjh to
Greg Smith all alone at the side of the six yard box, who easily slotted it home in the tenth minute.
Then
Tyson Keam – one of the fifth-year players honoured in a pregame ceremony for UBC's seniors night – made his mark on the contest by setting up back to back goals.
First his corner kick found
Paul Clerc in the box with just enough room to rise above the crowd and score with his head. Next Keam found
Sean Haley in space 20 yards from goal, and he beat keeper Mark Diakiw with a low strike to make it 3-0 UBC midway through the first half.
Haley got his name on the scoresheet twice more for setting up a pair of second half goals.
“Sean had another strong game,” said UBC head coach
Mike Mosher. “He kept the ball well for us and he was a growing concern for Saskatchewan many times, and he got a lot of guys involved.”
Saskatchewan managed to pull one back before halftime when Jerson Barandica-Hamilton's corner was nodded in by Bobbi Nicholat, but the T-Bird offence picked up where it left off again in the second half.
Navid Mashinchi subbed in and made an immediate impact thanks to a Huskies mistake at the back. A pass back to defender Jordan Farahani allowed Mashinchi to run in on goal unchallenged when Farahani blew a tire and went down, and Maschinchi slid the ball under a charging Diakiw for a 4-1 T-Bird lead.
Mashinchi also assisted on the fifth goal, sending a low cross through the 18 yard box to Mike Michelina who cut back to give himself space before unleashing a shot back across goal just inside the far post.
“I think the guys were hungry today after dropping the points yesterday when we thought we deserved the full three,” said Mosher, referring to Friday's 1-1 draw with Alberta. “Today the message was that we played well yesterday and wanted to carry that through to today, and we saw that in the first half.”
The Huskies picked up their second of the night just before the final whistle when Barandica-Hamilton's superb free kick curled toward the far post and was knocked down into a crowd of players before being finished off by Josh Northey from in close.
The win puts UBC on top of the standings for the time being at 7-1-4, though second-place Victoria does have a game in-hand and are just two points back, so the 'Birds have everything to play for when they wrap up the regular season next week on the road against Calgary and Lethbridge.
The Huskies fall to 4-6-2 and are eliminated from playoff contention with the loss. They finish the season at home next week against Victoria and Fraser Valley.
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