VANCOUVER – Building out a perfect 4-0 start to the Canada West season for the first time in nine years, the UBC Thunderbirds are finally set to play league games in the confines of Thunderbird Stadium as they host the Fraser Valley Cascades for their home opener on Friday, September 8, followed by a visit from the Trinity Western Spartans on Saturday, September 9.
The back-to-back rivalry matchups provide the T-Birds with a major opportunity to create some separation in the early season standings while building off a start to the campaign that has UBC ranked number one nationally.
"To start with four wins with really good performances both individual and collectively, all across the board it's been really strong," said UBC head coach
Mike Mosher after his team's strongest start since 2014. "15 goals for and one against, I don't think we could have dreamed for that kind of a start, but it's been good. It's also four games, it's 25 percent of the season and it's early September. Trophies get handed out in November. It's nice to do what we did but we have to maintain that standard and consistency going forward."
The oddity of the season schedule with four straight road games has been taken as a positive – even aside from the results – by the 'Birds as a method of team bonding after graduating eight players from last year's squad.
"It's a nice way, especially with a lot of new guys in the group, for them to gel a little bit and I think that has helped in the overall scheme of things," said Mosher. "But it's now great to be getting in our games at home. We play well on our pitch, it suits us quite well, we can knock it around as we do. We're certainly excited about our start, but also these home games coming up."
The Cascades (1-1) haven't played since the opening weekend of the season and will head to Thunderbird Stadium Friday night for their first road contest of the year. UBC swept the two-game season series with UFV in 2022 thanks to a pair of back-to-back 3-0 victories. The key for the Cascades this go around will be limiting T-Bird scoring opportunities as the blue and gold are averaging a whopping 3.75 goals per game.
"I think they'll look to defend a little bit so we'll have to be prepared to break them down but we've been pretty good in that regard thus far. Our possession game, our ability to connect passes has been excellent so that'll be key, just breaking them down, creating scoring chances."
Leading that scoring charge so far is third-year forward
Sebastian Dzikowski who has already racked up six goals and eight points, by far and away the Canada West leader in both categories. Rookie midfielder
Luke Norman leads the league with three assists.
As impressive as UBC's offence has been, the team has been equally as stellar defensively. Third-year keeper
Bennett McKay has yet to concede a goal, posting a clean sheet in all three of his starts.
Axel Thulin Lennselius earned the win in net against the UBC Okanagan Heat on Friday.
"I always say it starts at the front," added Mosher who continues to emphasize a team-based approach to defending. "It's not just the keepers, it starts with the strikers. Getting pressure up on teams, limiting the number of chances we give up, being difficult to play through. And, if we need to call upon the keepers, we do. Benny's been good, it's good to see him back and healthy. Our quality in goal with our three keepers is tremendous.
Jack Garner could play games right now as a first year out of high school and you don't see that very often so we're really pleased with the quality we've got in goal."
Saturday's matchup with the Spartans (3-0-1) may very well be UBC's biggest challenge of the season to date with Trinity Western yet to suffer a loss.
But as UBC's long time coach states, it really is just one game at a time with the focus for now squarely on the Cascades.
Kickoff for Friday's home opener at Thunderbird Stadium is set for 7:00 p.m. PT. Saturday's game against the Spartans is also set for 7:00 p.m.
Tickets for both are available now and both games will be streamed live on
Canada West TV.
