VANCOUVER – After a frustrating night on Friday evening against the UNBC Timberwolves, the UBC Thunderbirds men's soccer team had a second bite of the cherry against their northern neighbours on Saturday.
It was looking like it might be same again for UBC (9-0-2) at Thunderbird Stadium, with UNBC's rigid low block providing more problems for the home side to break down in a scoreless first half.
The home attack found the key in the second with
Henri Godbout,
Jost Hausendorf, and
Patrick Braun all finding the back of the net to give UBC a 3-0 victory and continue their unbeaten season as they moved to a record of nine wins and two draws.
"We figured it was going to be similar to yesterday, they were going to drop in and make it difficult, and they did," UBC head coach
Mike Mosher said after the match. "At half time it was just stay the course, persevere, have a little bit of quality and we'll find something and be aware of the quick transition.
"We've got enough quality that you figure over the course of 180 minutes it's going to come. But credit to UNBC, they did what they could, they made it difficult, defended quite well over the two days, but we got what we needed out of it, six points and two clean sheets and a little bit of stuff to work on."
UNBC goalkeeper Logan Pierce came up big again for his team in the first half, acrobatically turning away a
Joven Mann strike in the 23rd minute before getting fingertips to a fierce 30-yard free kick from
Chris Lee.
The Timberwolves (1-11-2) were on the defensive for much of the half but they had a couple of foray forwards on, with Colin Stauffer firing narrowly over from the edge of the box after
Bennett McKay punched away Connor Lewis' cross.
A sprawling Pierce turned away another Mann shot six minutes after the restart, with the ball bouncing agonisingly just past the right post.
The Timberwolves keeper denied Mann once again in the 58th minute, getting down low to stop his shot from a Brennan Fuerst cutback.
The breakthrough finally came for UBC just past the hour mark.
Connor Mrazek's cross was cleared high into the air by Luke Graham, falling perfectly to Godbout, who headed home his sixth of the season and the Thunderbirds had the lead.
The Timberwolves' task got harder in the 69th minute when Adam Korduner saw a straight red for a studs up tackle on
Eric Lajeunesse and it went from bad to worse for the visitors six minutes later when Hausendorf fired home the Thunderbirds second, after the ball broke to him in front of goal.
Fuerst crashed one off the bar in the 80th minute before rookie Braun grabbed the Thunderbirds third in the 84th minute, superbly firing a low one home into the bottom corner within two minutes of coming on for his college debut.
Isaac Tate almost grabbed a stoppage time consolation for the Timberwolves but McKay came up with a big save at his near post to make it five straight clean sheets for the T-Birds.
Next up for UBC is a home and home series against the University of Victoria Vikes. The team meet on the Island on Thursday, with the return game at Thunderbird Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
