Fredericton, NB - The UBC Thunderbirds men's soccer team advanced to the semifinals of the CIS Championships with a 1-0 victory over the Université de Montréal Carabins Thursday afternoon at BMO Field in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Canada West Rookie of the Year Sean Einarsson scored the game's lone goal in the 69th minute to help UBC continue its quest for a second straight national title.
BOX SCORE
Despite being the number two seed from the RSEQ, UBC head coach Mike Mosher knew that Montréal would give the Thunderbirds all they could handle in the opening game of the CIS National Championship tournament.
After a scoreless first half in which the Thunderbirds had very few opportunities to find the back of the net, it would be Canada West Rookie of the Year Sean Einarsson breaking the goose egg as he drilled home a shot from just outside the 18-yard box in the 69th minute to give UBC a 1-0 lead.
"A bouncing ball came into Niall Cousens up top, he dealt with it nicely, gave a little flick and I just took it down, closed my eyes and aimed anywhere," said Einarsson.
With momentum in their favour, UBC carried the play from there and nearly made it two nothing off a Navid Mashinchi free kick. The ball went off keeper Kenan Morina's hand and right to Niall Cousens, unfortunately he couldn't enough on it to beat Morina.
Montréal never got any quality chances in the final 20 minutes and UBC was able to move through with a 1-0 victory.
The Carabins thought they had taken the lead midway through the first half when Maxime Laurey beat Luke O'Shea, but the goal was disallowed as Laurey was ruled off side.
O'Shea picked up the shutout in net as he was credited with making one save.
"This was exactly what I thought we were going to going to get from Montréal, a huge battle," said UBC head coach Mike Mosher. "They have a good team and a good coach who knows our players and our team. I knew it was going to be a tough test. We said in the locker room at halftime it was going to take one little bit of quality that would turn this game and we got it. Sean did that for us."
The Thunderbirds will face OUA Champions York University in the semi-final tomorrow night at 4 p.m. AST (12 noon PST). York defeated Saint Mary's University 3-0 Thursday.
The game will be webcast live at http://www.cis-sic.tv
