VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds were dominant against the Lethbridge Pronghorns in their Canada West quarter-final at the South Turf on Friday evening.
A first-half, four-goal blitz saw scores from
Oliver Herbert,
Nicolas Nadeau,
Markus Rukavina, and
Max Comsia to put the number-one ranked T-Birds firmly in command.
Second-half goals from
Eric Lajeunesse and
Henri Godbout rounded off the scoring and gave UBC six different scorers in their emphatic victory.
"We've been pretty balanced with the goalscoring all year, but just a terrific start," Thunderbirds head coach
Mike Mosher said after the match. "The guys came out of the gates ready to go. We had them quite well prepared for what we expected and couldn't have asked for a better first half and smooth sailing from there."
UBC hit the ground running and opened the scoring just four minutes in when Herbert headed home after Lethbridge were unable to clear a concerted spell of Thunderbirds pressure.
Nadeau doubled that lead six minutes later, finishing off a Godbout pass. Godbout turned creator once again in the 20th minute, as Rukavina showed nice footwork and composure to add UBC's third.
Thunderbirds' leading scorer Comsia made it four in the 38th minute with a nice finish.
UBC kept the pressure on after halftime. Comsia saw a second goal ruled out for offside, but the Thunderbirds weren't to be denied, as Lajeunesse and Godbout added tallies before the hour mark to wrap up the scoring.
UBC move on to Sunday's semi-final against the University of Victoria Vikes with a place at nationals on the line. Kick-off is at 3:00 p.m. at Thunderbird Stadium.
