The University of British Columbia Athletics

VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds inched one step closer to defending its national championship with a 2-0 win over the Fraser Valley Cascades in the Canada West semi-final Friday evening at David Sidoo Field at Thunderbird Stadium. With the victory, the Thunderbirds advance to the Canada West Final Sunday and automatically clinch a berth to the CIS national championships.
 
BOX SCORE

Harry Lakhan scored both markers for the Thunderbirds, adding one early, which proved to be the game winner and adding an insurance marker seconds before the final whistle blew. Richard Meister collected the shutout for the Thunderbirds, extending the team's shutout streak to five games, dating back to the regular season, with the win Friday evening.


 
The match got off to an exciting start as the Thunderbirds had a goal called back due to an offside on the play while Fraser Valley's Ryan Liddiard nearly potted one for the Cascades, only to be denied by a goal-line clearance from a UBC defender.
 
The game would remain scoreless until the latter stages of the first half where the Thunderbirds got on the board thanks to Lakhan. A towering free kick in the 35^th minute from 40-yards out found the back of the net fooling UFV keeper Mark Village.  
 
Lakhan added his second of the game for good measure in injury time capitalizing on a setup from Reynold Stewart on an odd man break securing the win for the Thunderbirds.
 
Fraser Valley, in only its second playoff game in program history, kept the game close for the better part of the game but failed to put one past UBC keeper Meister.
 
"Fraser Valley is a really hard-working, well-organized group," added UBC head coach Mike Mosher. "They don't care who they play, they're going to get after it regardless and you have to be willing to outwork them, first and foremost."
 
UBC did just that as the team surrendered very few offensive chances limiting Fraser Valley to just three shots, all of which were turned away by Meister. Village finished with five saves for the Cascades.
 
"Niall Cousens had quite a good game, he worked hard there, kept us in possession and held the ball quite well. We didn't get into our rhythm of play as much as I would have liked overall but certainly we were strong defensively."
 
In a game highlighted more by its scrappy play than its offensive play, UBC and Fraser Valley racked up a combined 27 fouls and four yellow cards, three to UFV and one to UBC.
 
With the win, UBC advance to the Canada West Finals Sunday at 1 p.m. versus the Saskatchewan Huskies, both automatically qualifying for the CIS national championships to be held November 7-10 in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
 
UBC comes in as the reigning Canada West and CIS National Champions and will look to continue its momentum Sunday in order to get a favorable seed at the national championships next weekend.
 
Fraser Valley will play for the bronze medal Sunday at 11 a.m. against the Victoria Vikes who lost in extra time on Friday evening against the Saskatchewan Huskies.