VANCOUVER, B.C. – Defending U SPORTS and Canada West men's soccer champions, the UBC Thunderbirds, got their title defences off to a winning start with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the University of Fraser Valley Cascades at Thunderbird Stadium on Friday evening.
The rematch of last year's tense Canada West semi-final certainly didn't lack for action as Michael Beecroft opened the scoring for the visitors on the half hour mark before both teams saw a player sent off before half time after an ugly flashpoint.
UBC controlled the second half play and they finally found their equalizer in the 70th minute when
Max Comsia fired home from outside the box. The Thunderbirds pushed on and grabbed the winner 12 minutes later when
Eric Lajeunesse was played in and coolly slotted home.
It's somewhat of a new-look Thunderbirds side for this season, with some key defensive players moving on, but UBC head coach
Mike Mosher was delighted with the winning and testing start to the new campaign.
"There's positives and there's negatives to take from a game like that," Mosher mused after the match. "UFV are always a difficult team. They're always super fired up and energetic, and then we go behind by a goal and then it just evolves further and further from there.
"As soon as the game went 10-v-10 I think it really swung in our favour. There was more space for us to play against a very resilient and committed defending group. With our quality and with more space we just started to put the squeeze on them more and more. We knew we were going to get one, but could we find the other? And we did."
It was an entertaining start, with the action flowing quickly end-to-end as both teams looked for the opener.
UFV came closest to breaking the deadlock 10 minutes in when
Jack Garner turned a Mateo Brazinha shot around the post, but the UBC keeper wasn't able to do the same 20 minutes later after the Cascades pounced on a turnover and Brazinha fed Beecroft, who tucked it away perfectly into the bottom right corner.
With both teams battling hard, emotions boiled over in the 38th minute as UFV's Dante Colebourne wrestled
Joven Mann to the ground. Both players saw straight reds in the feisty altercation that followed after Mann aimed a kick at the Cascades player and tempers flared.
UBC dominated the second half play without being able to break through a resolute UFV backline, but they finally found a way and got themselves back on level terms in the 70th minute when
Markus Rukavina played the ball to Comsia, who fired home the equalizer low into the bottom left corner.
With the Thunderbirds now in the ascendency, they went ahead for the first time on the night with eight minutes remaining when
Markus Kaiser played in Lajeunesse, who coolly knocked the ball past Matheus de Souza for a lead UBC weren't to give up.
UBC almost sealed the deal in stoppage time but were denied by the post, but it was a confidence building first win of the year.
Next up for Fraser Valley is a trip to the island to take on the Vikes in Victoria on Saturday. UBC will stay at home, hosting the Trinity Western Spartans at Thunderbird Stadium on Saturday evening with kickoff at 7:30 p.m.
