Gurmaan Jhaj's goal in the 78th minute stood up as the game-winner as the University of the Fraser Valley men's soccer team edged the Mount Royal Cougars 1-0 on a rain-soaked Sunday afternoon at MRC Sports Complex.
Much of the game was played under a relentless downpour, but the Cascades' senior captain needed just one good bounce to boost his squad. UFV goalkeeper
Ethan Duggan got the decisive sequence started, booming a long kick ahead that glanced off the head of a Mount Royal defender and continued toward the Cougars' goal, directly into the path of Jhaj. He made no mistake on the breakaway, slotting a low shot into the right corner past Mount Royal keeper Kyran Valley.
Jhaj's third goal of the campaign gives him 20 for his career, and ties him for the Cascades' all-time record with Sasa Plavsic (2010-2012).
Duggan, the Cascades' rookie starter, made four saves for his first career clean sheet as the UFV side improved to 2-3-3 in Canada West play. Mount Royal, undefeated coming into the weekend, fell to 5-2-0 in the wake of successive road losses to UNBC (3-2 on Friday) and UFV.
"The clean sheet was the biggest thing," Cascades head coach
Tom Lowndes said. "We let three goals in on Friday night (in a
3-2 loss to Calgary), and that was an area we had addressed and needed to be better.
"We talked about being difficult to play against, not giving teams free rides, not giving them free opportunities, just being switched on for the entire 90 minutes."
The Cascades had the lion's share of the chances in the first half, but came up empty on the scoreboard. In the early going,
Brady Weir turned the corner coming down the left wing and fired a rising shot from a tight angle, but banged it off the post. Later in the half,
Jehmrode Kahlon dashed down the left and had a look at goal, but Valley came racing out and got his right hand on Kahlon's low shot attempt.
The Cougars had more bite going forward after halftime, and in the 54th minute, Dawid Dudek played through contact from UFV centre back
Nawaf Binsaleh and created room to fire a right-footed shot, but Duggan dove to his right to smother it.
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After Jhaj's ice-breaking goal, the Cougars' comeback effort hit a snag in the 84th minute, as defender Trevor MacPhee was booked for a yellow card for taking down UFV's
Parman Minhas just outside the box. It was his second yellow card in quick succession – his second having come just three minutes earlier – and he was sent off.
Mount Royal nevertheless continued to push. In injury time, Tysen Chatani had a look at goal from the top of the box, but Duggan was in perfect position to scoop it up, and the final whistle sounded.
The Cascades hit the road next week for a Saturday date with the Lethbridge Pronghorns (1:15 p.m. PT,
CanadaWest.tv).
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