VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds men's soccer team earned a 3-2 home victory over the Western Washington Vikings Saturday afternoon at Thunderbird Stadium.
 
The T-Birds went up 3-0 in the exhibition match against the NCAA Division II squad, and held on for the triumph as both teams substituted liberally and experimented with different lineups.
 
Kristian Yli-Hietanen recorded a brace after Riley Pang opened the scoring for UBC, while WWU's Taylor Allen also found the net twice.
 
Pang's goal came in the 21st minute, as he headed a cross just inside the left post. It allowed the home side to take a 1-0 lead into halftime.
 

 
Yli-Hietanen doubled UBC's lead early in the second half. Jora Saran placed a free kick into the penalty area and Yli-Hietanen was able to knock in a loose ball to make it 2-0.

A 61st-minute tap-in by Yli-Hietanen to the bottom right corner of the net put the T-Birds up 3-0.
 
Allen gave the visitors some hope in the 72nd minute as he broke in alone on the UBC net after receiving a beautiful through ball from Iakov Shmelev. Allen slotted the ball under T-Birds' goalkeeper Jason Roberts to get WWU on the scoreboard.
 
Allen got his team to within one after getting possession of the ball at the top of the penalty area in the centre of the field. His first shot was stopped by Roberts but Allen corralled the loose rebound and was able to convert on his second chance.
 
Roberts made four saves in the UBC net to earn the victory.
 

The Thunderbirds will host the Simon Fraser Clan on Friday night at Thunderbird Stadium. The exhibition match is scheduled for 7 p.m. PT.