After opening the Canada West regular season with a split on the road, the UFV Cascades men’s soccer team impressed during the club’s opening home weekend.
The Cascades welcomed the seventh-ranked UBC Thunderbirds on Friday evening, and played them to a 1-1 draw.
Brady Weir got UFV on the board in the eighth minute on a penalty kick, but the Thunderbirds evened the game up 15 minutes later. Cascades goalie David Hicks and his counterpart on UBC then shut the door for the rest of the game.
UFV head coach Tom Lowndes liked his team’s effort against the favoured Thunderbirds.
“I don’t think a lot of people outside our program gave us a chance tonight, but our players were willing to put a shift in and do a job, ” he stated. “We didn’t stop from the first minute to the 90th minute, and we caused a lot of problems on the counterattack. We were a handful to deal with. We had to absorb pressure at times and we had to sit in, but I couldn’t be prouder of the effort.”
The Cascades then hosted the UVic Vikes on Sunday, crushing the visitors 4-0.
UFV’s Gurmaan Jhaj scored two goals and added an assist to lead the Cascades to the win. Parman Minhas and Andrew Peat also tallied for UFV, with Hicks earning the clean sheet in goal.
The four goals is the biggest offensive output from the Cascades in nearly two years.
“It’s been a while since we’ve scored four goals in a game, so it was obviously nice,” Lowndes stated. “We looked dangerous on the counterattack again, and probably could have scored a few more.”
The men’s record now sits at 2-1-1 and they now have a bye week. They hit the road for games against Mount Royal on Sept. 15 and Alberta on Sept. 16.
For more on the team, visit ufvcascades.ca.
