By Grace Romund (The Cascade) – Email
Date Posted: October 20, 2011
Print Edition: October 19, 2011
On a cool crisp afternoon the UFV Cascades Men’s soccer team faced a tough University of British Columbia Thunderbirds team. The Cascade men have had a disappointing season so far and went into the match with a 1-6-1 record while their opponents were sitting at the top of the tables with a 5-0-3 record.
During an energetic start to the match, the Cascades were able to keep a lot of the action on the Thunderbirds half of the field and created a few good goal-scoring opportunities. It didn’t take the Cascades long to turn those opportunities into a goal. Within the first 10 minutes and after a great save by goalkeeper Mark Village, Cascade midfielder Sasa Plavsic was able to find the back of the Thunderbirds’ net.
“Colton [O’Neill] played a ball over the top and put me through,” said Plavsic. “I had a good touch and I fired it off the post past the goalie”
The Cascades were able to stay strong and hold on to their 1-0 lead for the rest of the first half. However, the Thunderbirds came out fighting in the second half and were looking for the equalizer.
Head coach of the UFV Cascades men’s soccer team, Alan Errington commented, “We needed to step it up and do a bit more in the second half because we knew [the Thunderbirds] would come flying out, but it wasn’t in them.” Within the first few minutes of the second half the Thunderbirds were able to put one past Village to tie up the game.
Play became tense when a hard tackle, within the Thunderbirds’ penalty box, caused a penalty shot for the opponents. This penalty shot resulted in a goal making the score 2-1. As the match drew nearer to an end, the Cascades seem to lose their focus and command of the field that they had maintained so well in the first half. This lack of focus led to a third goal for the Thunderbirds. The final score of the match was 3-1 for the Thunderbirds.
“The third goal we caused ourselves by giving the ball away,” commented Errington. “We’ve competed well enough, but we need to figure out a way to hang on and win.”
The last home matches of the season will this weekend Saturday and Sunday at 2:15 p.m. against Lethbridge and then Calgary at Bateman Park.
