Edmonton, AB – The UBC Thunderbirds have advanced to the Canada West gold medal game thanks to a dominating 3-0 victory over the University of Saskatchewan Huskies on Saturday morning in Edmonton. More importantly, the win guarantees the Thunderbirds a berth at the CIS National Championship tournament next weekend in Laval, Quebec.
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Greg Smith (North Vancouver, BC) scored the winner for UBC in the 15th minute. He booted in the rebound off of a hard shot from Milad Mehrabi (Coquitlam, BC), who was credited with the assist.
“Greg got us going with the first one. Milad hammered a shot and Greg was there for the rebound. Greg's a big game player and that's why we had him in there today. He delivered for us,” said UBC head coach Mike Mosher.
Marco Visintin (Vancouver, BC) doubled the lead off a corner kick in the 25th. Kent O'Connor (Fort Langley, BC) came off the bench in the second half and sealed the deal in the 77th.
While they did make a bit of a push in the second half, the Huskies were up against a crushing defence and seemed to have trouble getting good looks at the net. Just one of their ten shots was on target. Richard Meister (Port Moody, BC) made the save four minutes into the game and went on to collect the shutout in net for the Thunderbirds.
UBC has an exceptionally deep midfield that this week had three guys selected as 2012 Canada West all-stars. Mosher praised the way Visintin and Brandon Bonifacio (Vancouver, BC), 1st and 2nd team all-stars respectively, were able to limit the effectiveness of Saskatchewan's top midfielder and leading scorer, Brett Levis, who was also awarded 1st team honours.
“I thought guys like Brandon and Marco had really good games. Not only did they get the ball and launch the attack, but they did a good job containing a very good player from Saskatchewan who really makes that team tick. We kept him under wrap today and they were really instrumental in that,” said Mosher.
Mosher was happy that his team came out and showed what they are capable of right from the start. “We got the ball down and we played our brand. We created our scoring chances and we converted. Everybody played their role and we had strong performances. It was a team effort, a complete performance. That's what you need in playoff time,” he commented.
The Huskies will play in the bronze medal round Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. PST against Trinity Western. Immediately following that game, the Thunderbirds will take to the field at 12:15 p.m. PST for the Canada West final against the Alberta Golden Bears.
Live stats and video can for all games can be found at www.canadawest.tv.
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