The University of the Fraser Valley men's soccer team is ticketed for the Canada West Final Four, in the wake of a thrilling 2-1 road win over the Alberta Golden Bears on Friday afternoon.
Playing in the CW quarter-finals at Foote Field in Edmonton, the Cascades got goals from
Taylor Richardson and
David Parfett, and a pair of highlight-reel stops in the second half from goalkeeper
Jackson Cowx – including one on a penalty kick deep in injury time.
Ajeej Sarkaria replied for the Golden Bears, who had surrendered just four goals in 10 conference games, and hadn't allowed an opponent score multiple goals in a single game this season prior to Friday.
The Cascades are off to the Canada West Final Four (location TBD) for the fourth time in their history, and first since 2018. They'll face the winner of Saturday's game between the Victoria Vikes and MacEwan Griffins in the semis for the right to advance to the CW final – and the U SPORTS national championship.
"My chest has been feeling pretty tight for the past 20 minutes," UFV head coach
Tom Lowndes said with a chuckle afterward. "It seems to be every time we come here, it ages me five or 10 years. Just incredible.Â
"I'm so proud of our guys. I think for us, we're always the underdogs. No one believes in us, except for us. That's kind of been our motto all year – we don't care what other people think, we know what we are. Everyone's bought into that as a team. We look atÂ
the rankings in the preseason, we put our heads down, and go to work. I'm excited to see how far we can go."
The Cascades started the game brightly, but it was the Golden Bears who opened the scoring in the 13th minute. The hosts worked the ball down the left side and into the box, and Luke Withers slipped a pass to Sarkaria, the conference's all-time leading point-getter. He turned to his right, eluded a UFV defender, and sent a low shot against the grain into the bottom left corner.
The Cascades drew even on a free kick from just outside the box. Richardson stepped up, and his low shot took a deflection off the wall of defenders and rolled into the right corner, with Alberta keeper Liam Collins leaning the other way.
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Early in the second half, Sarkaria had a great chance to help his team reclaim the lead. Carlos Patino played him in on a breakaway, and Sarkaria tapped the ball to his left to manoeuvre around an on-rushing Cowx. UFV defender
Jun Won Choi hustled back to get between Sarkaria and the wide-open net, causing the Alberta striker to pause, and in that moment, Cowx came flying back into the picture and knocked the ball out of bounds.
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Shortly thereafter, UFV mustered a lightning-quick counterattack of their own. After the ball was cleared out of the UFV box, Choi threaded a long pass ahead to
Charandeep Rangi, who slipped a slick ball into the path of Parfett who finished with a low shot.
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The Golden Bears dominated possession in the dying minutes as UFV defended, and the Cascades were on the brink of victory before a last-ditch long ball ahead from the hosts caused problems. Lahai Mansaray tracked down the ball just inside the UFV box, where he collided with Cowx, and a penalty kick was awarded.Â
Patino stepped up, but Cowx dove to his left to parry his rising shot – a stunning stop.Â
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UFV cleared the ensuing corner, and the final whistle blew.
Afterward, Cowx said he'd been watching Patino throughout the game and felt that his inclination would be to shoot to the keeper's left on the PK.Â
"Since I'm the one that caused it, I needed to step up and help my team out," the sophomore keeper reasoned. "I put the team in a tough situation, so I have to own up and stand up, be a leader and show the guys I can do this.
"He ran up, he took it, and I chose right.
"Amazing. I would relive that moment 100 times. That was unbelievable, especially in a playoff game."
Afterward, Lowndes had high praise for his goalkeeper.
"A fantastic, heroic save by Jackson," he said. "That's a pressure of the highest level, to make a save like that in the 96th minute."
Lowndes also lauded the play of Richardson, who ran miles for the Cascades and caused the Golden Bears problems with his speed down the right wing throughout.
"Tay's been fantastic the past four or five weeks," he said. "He hit his form at the right time. At the start of the year he was trying to find his way a little bit, but he's been a handful for defenders. I thought he was really, really good today."
