The UBC Thunderbirds got off to a hot start and rode that momentum, defeating the University of the Fraser Valley men's soccer team 7-0 in the Canada West semifinals on Friday evening.
 
Playing at Thunderbird Stadium, the hosts got on the board in the fourth minute via Kristian Yli-Hietanen, and a pair of goals from Zach Verhoven and a single from Victory Shumbusho had UBC up 4-0 at the half-hour mark.
 
Second-half goals from Caleb Clarke, Mackenzie Cole and Shumbusho rounded out the scoring as the T-Birds punched their ticket to the Canada West title game where they'll face the Trinity Western Spartans, 3-0 winners over the Thompson Rivers WolfPack in Friday's earlier semifinal.
 
The Cascades and WolfPack will meet in the Canada West bronze medal match, Saturday at 7 p.m. at UBC's Ken Woods Field.
 
"They're a very good team, and they were clinical tonight," Cascades head coach Tom Lowndes said of the T-Birds. "It really rattled us conceding that early goal. We'd talked about being really good defensively and getting through the first 20 minutes, and that didn't happen.
 
"And after the first goal's gone in, and our age and inexperience has shown. Instead of steadying the ship for 15 or 20 minutes and just getting through, we made bad decisions and a few errors. And we've just compounded the issue by conceding another poor goal, and you're up against it.
 
"Could have done better on quite a few of the goals, but taking nothing away from them, they bossed the game tonight, they blitzed us. We were second-best 95 per cent of the game. It's a tough one, but it's experience for our younger players to see that's the level and that's the standard. We'll have to put it in perspective, but obviously that takes time and it's tough to do right now."
 
Yli-Hietanen opened the scoring early, taking a pass from Nick Fussell at the top of the box before drilling a turf-burning shot into the bottom left corner past the outstretched arms of Cascades goalkeeper David Hicks.
 
UFV had a chance to answer shortly thereafter – Parman Minhas made a dangerous run down the right flank and sent a cross in, but Andrew Peat just missed getting a touch on it from point-blank range.
 
Verhoven created the T-Birds' next three goals. In the 19th minute, he made a slashing run deep into the Cascades' box before cutting the ball back across goal where Shumbusho connected on a one-timer.
 
Two minutes later, Verhoven collected the ball near the top of the box and took a quick step to his left before sending a shot through traffic that found the back-right corner.
 
In the 30th minute Verhoven would be heard from again. He took a feed from Thomas Gardner, made a slick turn, and drilled a left-footed strike into the right side of the net for 4-0 lead at the break, rendering the second half largely academic.
 
With a win over TRU on Saturday, the Cascades can match their best-ever Canada West finish – the program also won conference bronze medals in 2013 and 2015.
 
"Obviously this one is fresh and it hurts," Lowndes said post-game. "But like I just said to the players, we've got a chance to match the best we've ever done tomorrow if we can get a result. We've got to use that as motivation. I told them to think about how far we've come from last season. If you'd said at the start of the year that we could be fighting for a Canada West bronze medal, I think we would have taken it and said, 'Brilliant, let's go for it.'"
 
- with files from Stu Walters, UBC Athletics