CALGARY – A sparkling performance by goalkeeper
Bea Francisco (2nd, Richmond, BC) and a knack for converting their opportunities led the UBC Thunderbirds to a 3-2 victory over the Calgary Dinos Saturday afternoon in Canada West field hockey action.
UBC improves to 5-2 on the season, while Calgary drops to 2-3-2.
Francisco aggressively took on the Calgary offence and made several fantastic saves in the contest, while the Dinos failed to convert on multiple opportunities to tie the game.
"Bea did play very well," said UBC head coach Hash Kanjee. "The reason she had to play well was because defensively, we made a lot of unforced errors. That allowed Calgary to generate quite a bit of offence. She made numerous saves that kept us in the game even though we had a two-goal lead."
Despite drawing six short corner opportunities in the first half alone, the Dinos found themselves trailing 2-0 at the half on a pair of early goals by
Robyn Pendleton (4th, Victoria, BC). Her two tallies came in the third and 15th minutes, both off short corner opportunities, with the second one finding its way through a maze of legs untouched past Calgary 'keeper Steph Petrowitsch.
Calgary began to press late in the opening half, but Francisco was up to the challenge. A diving blocker stop as she sprung to her right was the highlight and maintained the two-goal UBC lead through the half.
The Dinos continued their pressure early in the second half but their struggles to put the ball in the net continued. A deflection on a centering pass in front of Francisco went just inches wide of the net, and moments later Keara Chicquen took another crossing pass and stared at a gaping cage – but fanned on the opportunity as the ball rolled away harmlessly.
Calgary finally got on the board in the 58th minute with a penalty corner goal of their own. Serena Lockhart was the last Dino to touch the ball in a scramble in front of the UBC goal that made its way past Francisco. UBC would respond quickly, however, with
Shanlee Johnston (2nd, Vancouver, BC) scoring on a nifty shot as she dived to her left with the Thunderbirds rushing up the field in transition.
That insurance marker turned out to be the game-winner. Chicquen did finally convert on one of her opportunities as she tucked a loose ball just inside the post very late in the contest to pull the Dinos within one, but the final horn sounded just seconds after the goal as UBC walked off the field with the victory.
"Our marking wasn't the best, where we probably weren't winning the 50-50 balls, which is why Calgary did have a little more offence than we did," said Kanjee. "We started off really well, then in the latter stages of the first half, we just made too many mistakes which we had to work hard to defend and keep the ball out of the net. I think we had a bit of a wake up call so we'll have to do better with them tomorrow."
The Dinos and Thunderbirds wrap up their weekend series Sunday with a 1 p.m. start time at Hawkings Field.
