ABBOTSFORD, BC – It was the tale of two halves for the UBC Thunderbirds Friday night in Abbotsford, as they battled from a two-goal deficit to earn a valuable road point in a 2-2 draw with the University of Fraser Valley Cascades.
"We started the game exceptionally well and unfortunately a turnover cost us in the first half," said UBC Head Coach
Jesse Symons. "Going down two goals and playing our best half of the year is a good sign of things to come."
The T-Birds hadn't trailed in a game during the 2016 regular season but found themselves behind two goals in the 68th minute. UFV's Amanda Carruthers found the end of a Cascades' corner at the far post and nodded the ball into the UBC goal. Carruthers had already opened the scoring in the 21st minute after intercepting an errant UBC pass and scoring against the run of play.
UBC had controlled play for much of the second half and were finally rewarded in the 69th minute when
Jasmine Mander neatly finished a pinpoint cross from
Aman Shergill.
"We needed a goal and Aman played a great ball across," said team captain Mander, describing her first marker of 2016.
The Thunderbirds broke through again in the 79th minute, when
Meghan Douglas' corralled the ball in the Cascades' 18-yard box and picked the corner behind UFV keeper Kayla Klim.
"We showed lots of character coming back and we won't put ourselves in that position very often," added Mander. "We definitely deserved the point."
UBC is back in action Saturday night when they travel to Trinity Western for a game against the Spartans. The re-match of last year's CIS final, which saw UBC prevail 3-0, kicks off at 5 PM at Rogers Field in Langley, BC and can be seen live on CanadaWest.tv.
