VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds booked their berth at this year's U SPORTS nationals following a hard-fought 2-0 victory over the University of Victoria Vikes at Thunderbird Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
After a tense and scoreless first half, the game exploded into life in the second half with both teams having chances, before two pieces of individual brilliance from
Yu-Hsuan Yuan and
Markus Rukavina gave the Thunderbirds the victory and sent them to next week's Canada West championship match.
"We were really good early on, had some good chances, and then it turned into a real grind," UBC head coach
Mike Mosher mused after the match. "Yush, my word, what a strike… I'm just thrilled for this group. We've had a terrific season to date. We deserve to be at the tournament.
"A good, hard, difficult team in UVic and every game, every season presents a different story. Just because you've had a good season and you've got a good team doesn't mean that you're going to be there. Thrilled that this team is going to get that opportunity and we're heading back with a really good squad."
UBC carried most of the first-half play, but found it difficult to find a way through a resolute UVic defence, with the majority of their 13 shots coming from outside of the box.
The best chance for the Thunderbirds came in the 15th minute when
Max Comsia was denied by a big point-blank save from Callum Weir.
The Vikes struggled to get much going offensively and looked a little leggy after their extra time exertions in their win over Mount Royal on Friday night.
Takin Keshavarz had a couple of great chances for the Vikes in the first 15 minutes after the restart, denied by some big Thunderbirds blocks and a great save from
Roko Vukic.
Those scares ignited the UBC attack, and they finally got their breakthrough in the 62nd minute when the ball broke to Yuan, who lashed it home from over 20 yards out, giving Vikes 'keeper Weir no chance.
Weir produced a stunning diving save to deny a long-range
Oliver Herbert strike in the 73rd minute, before Rukavina showed great footwork and tenacity to make space for himself and perfectly place the ball past the Vikes 'keeper for the Thunderbirds' second with nine minutes remaining and put the game to bed.
UBC will now host Friday's Canada West Gold medal game at Thunderbird Stadium against the University of Alberta Golden Bears, who upset Calgary Dinos in the other semi-final on Sunday.
