VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds kept on rolling, extending their unbeaten start to the season to 10 matches with a 2-1 victory over the visiting Mount Royal Cougars at Thunderbird Stadium on Saturday evening.
In the battle between the two conference leaders and the two teams with the top defensive records in the Canada West, it was the Thunderbirds (8-0-2) who turned on the style early, going into the half with a two-goal lead after rebound finishes from
Sebastian Dzikowski and
Connor Mrazek.
Mount Royal (7-2-0) came out looking like a different side for the second half and team-leading scorer David Schaefer pulled one back for the Cougars in the 49th minute, but they couldn't find an equalizer and the Thunderbirds came away with another important victory.
"They're a good team," UBC head coach
Mike Mosher said after the match. "You knew they'd have some sort of response from the first half. They went more direct in the second and asked questions of us with their big forward, but I thought by and large we dealt with it quite well. We won the pieces and kind of disrupted the flow. There were a lot of knockdowns and stuff in the second half after that as the game changes, but that's the nature of the game. Every game, every half can be a little bit different."
Both teams felt each other out in the early stages, with
Chris Lee's low 20 yarder in the seventh minute, which was turned away by Mount Royal keeper Aidan Dumoulin, the best chance served up by either side.
UBC slowly started to turn the screw and their possession play and dangerous attack got the payoff in the 20th minute when Dzikowski quickly pounced on a rebound after Mrazek's shot from the edge of the box cannoned off the left post and then Dumoulin, straight into the path of the big striker who buried his conference-leading 13th of the season to give the Thunderbirds the lead.
UBC didn't look back after that and nearly doubled their lead five minutes later when
Luke Norman's header to the far post was met by an outstretched Mrazek, but Dumoulin quickly closed down his angle.
Mrazek wasn't to be denied though and put UBC two up in the 26th minute after Norman's fierce long range strike crashed off the crossbar and fell right to the midfielder who slotted home his fourth of the season. Against a team that had only conceded one goal in their first eight matches, it was quite the start for the Thunderbirds.
Dumoulin brought out another save to deny Mrazek just past the half hour mark as UBC kept pushing, but they had to be content with a two goal lead at the half after a dominant first 45 minutes that saw them outshoot their visitors 13-1.
UBC had removed Mount Royal as an attacking threat for much of that first half but Ryan Gyaki's side came out for the second with a renewed vigour and urgency and they pulled one back four minutes after the restart when the Thunderbirds failed to fully clear an Ethan Keen cross into the box and the ball fell to Schaefer, who drilled the ball home through a crowd of players.
With the game now very much back on, both sides pushed forward and
Tomas Pena nearly restored UBC's two goal lead when the ball came to him at the edge of the box from a cleared corner and his low drive was turned away at the last second by Dumoulin.
The play ebbed and flowed without any real clear cut chances being carved out by either side.
Nikolas Meyer came close to grabbing a dramatic 90th minute leveller but his header just missed the far post before Josh Flaksman flashed one over for Mount Royal in stoppage time.
It was another big victory for an unbeaten UBC side, who now have a weekend off before returning to action at Thunderbird Stadium on Thursday October 5th when they take on the Victoria Vikes.
For the Thunderbirds, the timing of their break has come at a perfect moment in the season for them.
"It's a good time to have it," Mosher believes. "Whenever you get your break you kind of plan around it when you see the schedule. It's nice to have a break in the middle of the season somewhere, in this case we're just beyond the middle. It actually comes at a great time. We can kind of reenergize a little bit and then that last push into the last half of the season. So eight wins and two draws after 10, we couldn't have asked for more."
