LANGLEY, B.C. – The UBC Thunderbirds (2-0-0) secured their second straight clean sheet to start the new season with a 3-0 win over the Trinity Western University Spartans (1-1-0) at Chase Office Field on Saturday night.
Despite earning a red card just before halftime, the T-Birds finished this one with seven shots on goal. Two came from
Max Comsia, one in each half, that found the back of the net to hand his side a two-goal lead before
Lucas Dasovic followed suit with a redirect off a corner kick in the 76th minute to put the game away for the Thunderbirds.
UBC held a firm grip on possession from the opening kickoff. With swift and sound ball movement, the 'Birds managed to create windows of opportunity, only for the Spartans to close those lanes consistently with bodies in the box. But in the 30th minute, those blocks backfired as one shot ricocheted off a defender to the chest of Comsia, who settled it down just outside the six-yard box and rifled it into the top-right corner to open the scoring for the second time in as many games for his squad.
The Spartans pushed back with chances on the other end, including in the 38th minute, when Elijah Bean led a counterattack that ended with a shot toward the bottom-right corner that was met by third-year netminder
Roko Vukic for his second sprawling save of the half.
As stoppage time was added on to the first 45, the game took a gruesome turn. UBC was pressing on offence, but as the Spartans regained possession, Justin Oh gathered the ball and was met with a hard sliding tackle that sent the first-year midfielder to the ground with a serious injury. He was unfortunately stretchered off the field and a red card was shown, limiting UBC to 10 players for the rest of the way as the first half came to a close.
Following a lengthy halftime break due to the injury, the Spartans pressed early in the second with the man advantage. The offence continued to orbit around Bean as the first-year forward narrowly missed his third attempt of the match, which just skipped past the left post. But UBC remained composed as, in the 57th minute, Comsia double-his team's lead. Collecting a pass at the top of the box, the third-year forward juked right around a defender, then left around a pair of Spartans before curling a low strike into the bottom-right for the brace.
The T-Birds clearly had the wind in their sails once more as, in the 76th minute, UBC was awarded its 10th corner attempt of the night.
Cameron Hajdu lined up to take the kick and, defender to defender, fired it perfectly into the box for Dasovic, who just needed a back-heel redirect to put it away and extend UBC's lead to three.
The Spartans continued to battle to the final whistle but couldn't break through the UBC wall as the T-Birds secured a 3-0 victory, earning Rokovic his second straight clean sheet to start the new campaign.
The 'Birds will look to remain perfect this season as they return home for a midweek rematch against the Spartans. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. PT on September 2 at Thunderbird Stadium.
