VANCOUVER, B.C. - Goals either side of half time from Jayda Thompson and Sienna Gibson set UBC Thunderbirds (5-0-0) on their way to a 4-0 victory over old foes Trinity Western Spartans (2-1-2) in Canada West women's soccer action at Ken Woods Field on Friday evening. Ava Alexander and Holly Whelan also got on the scoreboard for UBC in a dominant second half performance.
 
Both teams headed into the eagerly anticipated rematch of last year's U SPORTS championship game with unbeaten records, but it was the Thunderbirds who were to stay perfect on the season, handing the Spartans their first loss of the new campaign and moving to five straight wins to kick off the defense of their national title.
 

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 "We wanted to make a statement today," UBC head coach Jesse Symons said after the match. "They're a very good program, a very good team, and we wanted to make sure this win today would push us up the table a bit and the players stepped up."
 
"Overall, the first half was very cagey. The timing of our first goal with Jayda was fantastic. To go into the half 1-0 and then scoring right after opened up the game. Timing of the goals today was a big thing. We did control them very well. They've got some good attacking players and we were able to keep them out of our penalty today pretty good."
 
Trinity Western started the stronger and Charity Field brought a couple of saves out of Dakota Beckett in the opening 10 minutes, the second of which was an acrobatic effort to turn the chance away.
 
Nisa Reehal brought a good save out of Yasmine Pahal in the Spartans goal in the 27th minute, and it looked like neither team was going to find the decisive breakthrough before the break.
 
That changed a minute into first half stoppage time. Jacqueline Tyrer battled well to win the ball at the halfway line and sent a long ball forward for Thompson to chase down. The third-year forward let it take a couple of bounces before firing in a delightful diagonal dipper over Pahal into the far corner and UBC headed into the break with the one goal lead.


 
The Thunderbirds kept the pressure on to start the second half as Sophia Ferreira headed a corner inches wide two minutes after the restart.
 
UBC kept pushing and they doubled their lead in the 48th minute. Reehal brought a close range save out of Pahal. The rebound broke to Gibson, who made no mistake in burying her first ever college goal.
 
Whelan almost made if three for the Thunderbirds, crashing a shot off the crossbar just before the hour mark. UBC weren't to be denied, however, and Alexander made it 3-0 with another dipping effort in the 63rd minute, after a beautiful touch and turn.
 
Whelan blasted home a fourth for UBC in the 67th minute, assisted by Ava Alexander, and that rounded off the scoring after a dominant and clinical game from UBC.


 
The Thunderbirds outshot their visitors 20 to five, allowing just those two shots on target in the first 10 minutes, and kept their fourth clean sheet in their five matches played to date.
 
"Our team really wants to make sure that our identity is there from a defensive perspective, because we have so many talented attacking players," Symons said. "We feel we're going to score goals when we get after teams and we did that tonight."
 
"Overall, the unsung hero tonight was Taiya Dennehy. She was everywhere. She managed space, she was so good in possession, overall she did a really good job sitting in that midfield space. Our back four has been very good. To have two rookies manage some very good players was impressive to see tonight."
 
UBC are back in action on Sunday afternoon with another Lower Mainland matchup as the University of Fraser Valley Cascades pay Thunderbird Stadium a visit. Kick-off is 1:00 p.m. (PT). Trinity Western now make the long trip north to Prince George to take on the UNBC Timberwolves on Sunday at noon.