Edmonton, AB - The UBC Thunderbirds took home the gold today at the 2012 Canada West men's soccer Championships in a double overtime thriller. They prevailed in a hard fought battle over the tournament hosts, the Alberta Golden Bears, by a score of 2-1.
This is the 14
th Canada West Championship for the Thunderbirds, the most recent being 2010. Last year, the Golden Bears scored in the 89
th minute to knock the Thunderbirds out of the playoffs in the early rounds. The Golden Bears showed more of their own late game heroics on Saturday against the Trinity Western Spartans, winning in overtime to advance to today's final.
But today was almost destined to be UBC's banner day. Canada West Player of the Year Gagandeep Dosanjh (Abbotsford, BC) showed exactly why he was awarded the league's highest individual honours earlier this week. The striker, who led Canada West in goals and assists this season, was a threat every time he touched the ball tonight. He was the hero once again, breaking through Alberta's persistent defence and putting UBC ahead in the 101
st minute.
“It was great to see Gagan get that big goal for us. He works so so hard. You need your big guns to show up in the big games, and he did that today,” said UBC head coach
Mike Mosher.
Milad Mehrabi (Coquitlam, BC) gave UBC an early lead 13 minutes into the game when he collected a pass from
Reynold Stewart (Delta, BC) and buried it in the Alberta net. The Thunderbirds held that lead into half time, but it was a rough and physical match, with hard tackles and bloody noses. Mosher thinks it was that intensity that spurred his team on.
“I thought our guys showed a lot of character today. The finals are always going to be a battle. Gagan took a pretty hard knock right before half time and he was hurting. That really galvanized our group I think, the guys rallied around him.”
The Golden Bears came back out strong in the second half, and equalized just over a minute into resumed action. Jermele Campbell (Edmonton, AB) took a great ball from Zenon Markevych (Edmonton, AB) inside the 18-yard box and shot it cross crease into the bottom right corner.
Alberta keeper Jay Vetsch (Edmonton, AB) held off a UBC surge to lift his team into overtime. The Thunderbirds fired off 18 shots in the second half alone, but the Canada West 1
st team all-star made five gave-saving stops as the tension increased. UBC's
Luke O'Shea (Richmond, BC) stopped a last minute shot from Markevych, who found the ball rolling along the 20 yard line and blasted it at the net.
Just before the first extra time half expired, Dosanjh took advantage of a defensive miscue in the Alberta 18-yard box and beat Vetsch for the game winner. Alberta pushed to even the score in the second overtime, but UBC would hang on to win the game. Vetsch finished with eight saves on the night, compared to three for O'Shea. UBC outshot Alberta 25 to 11.
With a championship title on the line, and the intensity of a tight game, things got emotional and by the end six players had been given yellow cards. Luckily, those cards won't affect anything, and Mosher will have his full line up available for next week.
The Thunderbirds had already booked their ticket to the CIS National Championships at the University of Laval, but now as the Canada West Champions who are undefeated on the season they most likely will get one of the top two seeds. They will come home tonight, but it will be a quick turnaround as they will catch a flight to Montreal on Monday afternoon. Their first game at the CIS tournament will be on Thursday against the University of New Brunswick.
“I'm really proud of this group the way that they've competed all year. They've showed that they are battlers as well as good players, and we've got to carry that through until next week,” said Mosher.
