CALGARY – The UBC Thunderbirds men's soccer team remained perfect on the season with a 2-0 victory on the road against the Mount Royal Cougars on Saturday.
Forward
Steve Johnson (Tsawwassen, BC) got his first goal of the season, heading in the game winner off a cross from Gagandeep Dosanjh (Abbotsford, BC) in the 13
th minute. The assist was Dosanjh's team-leading 11
th point this year.
UBC kept Mount Royal goalkeeper David Thalheimer busy all afternoon, firing off 19 shots. At least three of those were very close calls, stopped only by the crossbar. But just as the final whistle was about to blow, UBC's
Greg Smith (North Vancouver, BC) took a through ball from
Kent O'Connor (Fort Langley, BC) and put it in the back of the net for his first of the season.
It was the fourth shutout victory for the Thunderbirds in their first five games this year. Goalie
Richard Meister (Port Moody, BC) made a diving save on a hard close-range shot from Cougar striker Cody Cook in extra time. It was one of just 2 saves he had to make to keep the clean sheet in his first game this season.
At 5-0-0, UBC is now the only team in Canada West soccer maintaining perfect record. However, Trinity Western University has played 2 more games thus far and are 5-0-2. TWU sit atop the conference standings with 17 points over UBC's 15. The two teams will not meet until they play a home-and-away set over the last weekend of the regular season.
The Thunderbirds will now fly straight to Winnipeg to take on the University of Winnipeg Wesmen Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. PST.
