VANCOUVER – The co-No. 1 UBC Thunderbirds completed their second undefeated Canada West men's soccer season in four years on Saturday after drawing 1-1 with the Fraser Valley Cascades at Thunderbird Stadium.
 
UBC finishes conference play with a record of 10-0-2, and an impressive eight shutouts with only five goals against, while the single point earned from tonight's tie was enough to give UFV third place in the Canada West Pacific Division standings.
 
Dylan McCrindle scored for the Cascades in the 90th minute after Lucas Reis (Port Moody, B.C.) put the host Thunderbirds ahead in the 67th.
 
Before things got underway, the Thunderbirds honoured four players who will be finishing their university careers with UBC at the end of this season: Gagan Dosanjh (Abbotsford, B.C.), Harry Lakhan (Surrey, B.C.), Milad Mehrabi (Coquitlam, B.C.) and Justin Wallace (Kamloops, B.C.).
 
UBC head coach Mike Mosher also gave an opportunity for some young guns, such as defender Connor Guilherme (Unionville, Ont.) and goalkeeper Jason Roberts (Richmond, B.C.), to play in their first league matches.
 
"We had several players out there tonight playing in their first CIS game. It was a great opportunity for them," said Mosher. "They earned that right by working hard all year."
 
On the game-tying goal, UFV goalie Alex Skrzeta booted the ball well into the Thunderbirds' half of the field and it met with the head of Daniel Molendijk, but his attempt was stopped by UBC's Roberts. The ball dropped down just in front of the goal line and the rebound was rifled in by McCrindle.  
 
The hosts opened the scoring in the 67th minute. Rushing neck and neck up the left wing with a UFV defender following a feed from Guilherme, Reis won the race and skillfully arced a shot over top of Skrzeta and into the net.
 
The teams were scoreless in the first half.
 
A pair of shots from UBC's Boris Si (Vancouver) in the ninth and 12^th minutes opened things up, but he couldn't sneak one past Skrzeta.
 
Si was back with another slick individual effort in the 15^th minute, but he fired one just left of the net.
 
A rocket from rookie T-Bird midfielder Kerman Pannu (Surrey, B.C.) from just outside the box bounced high off the crossbar, leaving things knotted up at zero heading into halftime.
 
Roberts had a quiet first half, as the Cascades were denied adequate room for scoring chances and failed to get a shot on net.
 
The teams traded good chances after the restart.
 
Skrzeta came up huge in the 48th minute with a diving save stopping Si's low shot from finding the back of the net.
 
A long bomb from UFV's Elijah Sampson in the 56^th minute from the 18-yard line sailed above the crossbar, one of several Cascades shots to go high.
 
UBC's goal sparked an offensive push from the Cascades in the other direction. In the 70^th minute, UFV's Kree Byrne headed a ball off a nice, soaring cross pass just left of the goal post.
 
Neither team was able to respond with a game winner before the clock ran out.
 
Mosher felt confident that his team is in a good mindset heading into playoffs next week.
 
"We've been getting better every week…I think we showed that again this weekend," noted Mosher. "Now we're ready for the post season."
 
UBC, the first-place team in the Pacific Division, will face Prairie No. 4 Saskatchewan in the Canada West quarter-final round. The game will be played at Thunderbird Stadium on Friday, Oct. 30 at 7:30 p.m.