VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds gave their graduating seniors a fitting send-off with a 3-1 victory over the visiting UBC Okanagan Heat at Thunderbird Stadium on Saturday evening, a win that clinched first place in the Canada West Pacific Division.
Two goals in a two-minute spell early in the first half sent the teams in level at the break, with Malakai Emerson giving the Heat the lead following a quick counter in the 10th minute before
Brandon Momotani scored his first goal of the season to tie things up just 92 seconds later.
UBC took the game to UBCO in the second half and their pressure finally paid off with two goals in the final 15 minutes, as
Chris Lee scored from the spot and
Tomas Pena sealed the deal with a third five minutes from time.
It was a good win for the Thunderbirds on their Senior Night, against a Heat side that didn't sit back and took the game to their hosts for spell of the match.
"They're in a position where they have nothing to lose," UBC head coach
Mike Mosher mused after the match. "They're not moving on so they're going to have a go and credit to them. I say this all the time, the beauty of our conference is that every team can take points off you on any given day, and it's happened time and again, year after year after year, where maybe in some conferences you show up and it's just a matter of when and how many. And that makes for difficult games, week in and week out."
The evening kicked off by honouring each of the seven seniors graduating from the Thunderbirds program this season -
Sam Aiello,
Logan Chung,
Sebastian Dzikowski,
Chris Fisher,
Noah Hrdlicka,
Axel Thulin Lennselius, and
Bradley Richardson. Due in part to the COVID-cancelled season affecting graduation timelines, this year's class of seniors was a large one, and the players' impact on the team both on and off the pitch will certainly be felt.
It was an end-to-end first half with both teams making the running at times, but clear-cut goalscoring chances were at a premium.
The visitors took a shock lead in the 10th minute after a superb quick counter from a Thunderbirds corner gave the Heat a 5-on-2 break, ending with Matteo Bigatinni cutting the ball back to Emerson who buried it past
Bennett McKay in front of goal.
The Heat's lead lasted less than two minutes before Momotani blasted the Thunderbirds back onto level terms. It was a great team move by UBC as
Chris Lee chipped the ball forward to
Connor Mrazek, who played it inside to Dzikowski. The T-Birds leading scorer couldn't get a clear shot off and played it out to a wide open Momotani who made no mistake to grab the equaliser.
UBC pushed for a quick second, with Tyson Gugushe denying Dzikowski straight from kick off.
Lee had looks on goal for the Thunderbirds, but the closest they came to grabbing the lead before half time came when Gugushe produced another good save to keep out a fierce Momotani strike in the 44th minute.
UBC upped the intensity in the second half and Dzikowski had the ball in the net in the 52nd minute, pouncing on a Gugushe spill from a Fisher free kick, but the flag was up quickly on the striker for offside.
Fisher had another free kick saved by Gugushe in the 71st minute, tipping the ball over from under his crossbar.
The Thunderbirds finally got their breakthrough in the 75th minute when Lee fired home a penalty after
Logan Chung was sent crashing to the ground in the box.
Pena almost added a third minutes later, but his shot was tipped onto the bar and over by Gugushe, but the winger got his reward in the 85th minute when he fired home his third of the season and UBC's third of the night to secure the win and the three points.
The Thunderbirds finish their regular season on the road with games at the Trinity Western Spartans in Langley on Friday night (kick off 7:15 p.m. PT) followed by a trip to Abbotsford next Sunday afternoon for a match-up with the UFV Cascades (kick off 1:00 p.m.) and with the number one seeding in Canada West still up for grabs, there's still a lot to play for.
"We're disappointed to have lost yesterday," Mosher said of their loss to Thompson Rivers on Friday night. "The first half we were really good and we had some really good chances we needed to take. Second half was different. It was a pretty tight game. But you come back and all we can do is control what is in front of us now. Learn from the last game and make sure we're going into playoffs in two weeks' time on a high note and fresh."
The UBCO Heat still have three games of their season remaining, the first of those comes on Wednesday when they travel to Edmonton to take on the Alberta Golden Bears before returning home to Kelowna to host a pair of games against the UNBC Timberwolves next weekend.
You can catch all of the action across Canada West, live and on demand, on
canadawest.tv
