ABBOTSFORD – The UBC Thunderbirds continued their winning ways to open the final weekend of the Canada West season thanks to a convincing 6-1 decision over the University of Fraser Valley Cascades under rainy skies Friday night.
The T-Birds spread out the offence with six different goal scorers finding the back of the net to remain perfect, improving to 13-0 and comfortably occupying top spot in the overall Canada West standings. UBC has collected all 39 points available to them so far during the regular season and sit eight points clear of the Calgary Dino's in second spot on the eve of the Canada West campaign coming to a close. UFV fell to 2-9-2.
UBC wasted little time in opening the scoring just four minutes into the contest with
Jayda Thompson setting up
Bailey Doerksen for the second-year midfielder's eighth marker of the season and a 1-0 advantage.
The Cascades would respond 21 minutes later to even things up at 1-1 courtesy of Jasdeep Dhaliwal's third goal in minute 25. Another 20 minutes on it was Thompson making her presence felt once again on the scoresheet, tallying her fourth of the year in the 41
st minute to give the T-Birds a 2-1 edge heading into halftime.
Coming out of the break it was the No. 1 ranked U SPORTS team in the country that shifted into another gear in scoring four unanswered goals to put the game well out of reach. It started with
Vanessa Tome bulging the twine ten minutes into the second-half with her fourth goal of the season to make it 3-1 'Birds. Just four minutes later
Holly Whelan added to UBC's tally with her eighth marker of the season to extend the lead to 4-1 in minute 59.
As the game progressed to the later stages and the rain not relenting one bit it was T-Birds rookie
Maddy Norman joining in on the scoring parade, notching her first goal of the season in the 76
th minute to put UBC ahead 5-1. Just two minutes later the T-Birds found more joy, courtesy of fourth-year forward
Jade Taylor-Ryan who's been on a tear in the back half of the season as she collected her Canada West leading 13
th goal and 19
th overall point, which is also tops in the conference. Taylor-Ryan's marker in minute 78 rounded out the T-Birds scoring resulting in a 6-1 final.
"The team played with such focus and determination as the game progressed," said UBC head coach
Jesse Symons. "We had a lot of players join in the attack tonight and really create and score in different ways. It was a full team performance and we are excited to our season strong on Saturday night."
The defending U SPORTS national champions will close out their regular season Saturday evening visiting the rival Trinity Western Spartans and will look to become the first team in Canada West history to finish the regular season with a perfect 14-0 record.
Kickoff on Saturday night is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. PT. and the game can be seen on
canadawest.tv
