VANCOUVER – Goalkeeper Peter Whyte was the UBC Thunderbirds hero as they made it five straight Canada West men's soccer championships with a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over the Calgary Dinos on home turf at Thunderbird Stadium Sunday afternoon.
The Thunderbirds were made to work hard for their 22nd conference banner by a dogged Dinos side that were hard to break down, lively on the counter, and had a kick to win it on penalties themselves before Whyte came up with two huge saves.
Still scoreless at the end of 120 minutes of play, the teams headed into penalties. Calgary had a chance to win it with their fifth kick, but Whyte denied Koen Schoffner, and two rounds later Markus Kaiser tucked away the decisive penalty to claim gold and send UBC to another nationals.
"I feel 10 years older and maybe a little bit closer to retirement after that one," UBC head coach
Mike Mosher joked after his side's dramatic victory. "We were down to the last shots and pressure shots to sink it and keep the thing going, so credit to the boys. They stepped up and delivered in critical moments and the PK shootout there. And what can you say about Pete [Whyte]? He comes up with the saves when we needed them. Huge. Huge.
"Finals are never easy and they certainly made it difficult for us. We weren't at our sharpest today but we've been saying during this playoff run and even the run towards it that you deal with adversity and you take it on. With championship teams, it is how you deal with those critical moments and when you get challenged."
UBC dominated the first half possession, while Calgary were happy to hit on the counter, as the Thunderbirds fired in the shots but without causing too much issues for Dinos keeper Jake Ruschkowski.
The Dinos had the first real chance of the half 19 minutes in when William Omoreniye rose well but headed wide.
The Thunderbirds' best chance came six minutes later when Ruschkowski could only parry a fierce
Nick Fussell strike but the Dinos cleared the danger from the rebound.
UBC upped the intensity from the get go to start the second half, launching wave after wave of attacks and coming close on a couple of occasions.
Fussell forced a save from Ruschkowski just 44 seconds after the restart. The Calgary keeper was unable to hold on to the ball but scrambled to recover the rebound with
Victory Shumbusho waiting to pounce and poke home the opener.
And it was the same story on the hour mark, with Rushkowski keeping out a fierce 12 yard strike from Fussell and just getting to the loose ball ahead of Shumbusho.
The Dinos were still very a much a danger themselves and their semi-final hero Decklin Mahmi almost became their final hero with a lovely looping effort from an Omoreniye cross that brought a fantastic one-handed acrobatic save from Whyte as he flew across his goal.
Rushkowski came up with another huge save midway through the half to deny Shumbusho, after the striker's lovely touch and turn.
Both sides pushed hard to try and find the winner in regulation time, but neither could and they headed for another 30 minutes in the enthralling encounter.
The Thunderbirds dominated the play in extra time but it was the Dinos that had the best chance on one of the rare forays forward, with Gianmarco Plenzik firing into the side netting.
Tristan Nkoghe almost won it in the last minute of extra time, but Ruschkowski denied the T-birds again and we were heading to spot kicks.
Eryk Kobza put away the first kick before Ruschkowski kept out
Nick Fussell to give the Dinos a huge advantage. Plenzik, Omoreniye, and Mahmi converted for Calgary, with Gardner, Shumbusho, and Noah Hrdlicka scoring for UBC, giving Schoffner the chance to win it for the Albertans.
Whyte came up with the big stop to send it to sudden death. Kundai Dziwa was on target of Calgary, before a cheeky hop and a skip effort from Marcus Puhalj tied it all up again. Whyte then came up big again to deny Derek Brust before Kaiser fired home the winning spot kick and give UBC the 6-5 win on penalties.
It was a heartbreaking way to lose for the Dinos after such a gutsy season and late run. Calgary now have to be content with a silver medal, but it's been a strong year with a lot of upsides and solid foundations for Brendan O'Connell's side.
"We're immensely proud," O'Connell said after the match. "The boys have been committed all season, they only came back in August, and we peaked at the right time. We're a very young team and this experience is going to hold them in good stead. We're very, very proud of them.
"I think this is going to be a strong team for the next three, four, five years and we've got others coming through as well. It does keep the program in good stead and they absolutely deserve to be there. We won the games that mattered. They gave absolutely everything."
UBC now turn their attentions to their quest for a 14th U SPORTS national title in Kamloops next week and are heading into it full of confidence.
"There's lots of new teams [this year]," Mosher noted. "We'll have to do a little bit of research on a few of them. But this is a good group. This is as good a group as we've had I think for a lot of years. We've been there and had some heartbreaks, a bunch of PKs and extra time and what not over the last couple of years. We'll enjoy this moment here today, but we'll be back to it tomorrow and start getting ready for Thursday. New faces but everybody's earned their way there. I say it every year - the standard has gotten better and better and better across the country in the different conferences and there's no easy games."
