Edmonton, AB – The University of Alberta Golden Bears scored a late goal to bring the UBC Thunderbirds 8-game win streak to an end on Saturday afternoon in Edmonton. Still undefeated, the 2-2 draw earns UBC another point, increasing their total to 25. While they are no longer perfect, the Thunderbirds retain their lead of Canada West men's soccer with 5 games left in the regular season.
After his team cruised to two wins against UNBC last weekend, UBC head coach
Mike Mosher acknowledged that the Thunderbirds would be in for “a tough test going out on the road to Alberta”, and the Golden Bears did not disappoint. The home squad rose to the challenge today and pushed UBC more than any other opponent has thus far this year. In their first meeting with UBC since last season's playoffs, Alberta took an early lead, scoring just 6 minutes into the game. It was just the third time this year that UBC failed to find the back of the net first.
Consistently one of the top forwards in Canada West soccer, 2010 CIS and Canada West Rookie of the Year Marcus Johnstone (Edmonton, AB) continues to be a nemesis for UBC. His winning goal in the final minute of the 2011 Canada West Championship prevented UBC from advancing to the CIS national championship playoffs. This time, Johnstone played the role of set up man, assisting on midfielder Zenon Markevych's (Edmonton, AB) first goal of the season.
UBC answered with a goal from
Greg Smith (North Vancouver, BC) in the 24
th minute, assisted by
Milad Mehrabi (Coquitlam, BC). The teams went off for half time with an even scoreboard.
In the second half,
Reynold Stewart put UBC ahead with a goal in the 62
nd minute.
Brandon Bonifacio (Vancouver, BC) was credited with the assist. Not to be outdone, Alberta made a pair of substitutions in the 78
th minute that immediately paid off. Coming in for Jermele Campbell (Edmonton, AB), forward Jonah Feil (Victoria, BC) headed in the tying goal in the 80
th minute on a great ball from rookie defenseman and 2012 Vancouver Whitecaps member Niko Saler (Lethbridge, AB).
Alberta went high and wide on 3 more shots in the final ten minutes, as did UBC's
Paul Clerc (Coquitlam, BC) with his header just before the final whistle. In the end, UBC had 7 shots on target to Alberta's 4. Alberta improved their record to 6-1-3 compared to 8-0-1 for UBC. This bodes well for an exciting rematch should the two meet again in the playoffs.
But first, the Thunderbirds will fly straight to Saskatoon for the next task at hand, a Sunday matchup against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. The Huskies suffered a 1-0 loss to Trinity Western University earlier today and sit second behind the Golden Bears in the Prairie Division with a 5-3-2 record. Kick-off for tomorrow's game will be at 1:15 p.m. PST.
