Abbotsford, BC –
Mateo Brazinha equalized just before halftime, and
Kian Proctor scored the winner early in the second half as the UFV Cascades men's soccer team picked up a 2-1 victory over the University of Victoria Vikes on Friday at Rotary Stadium.
The win moves UFV to 3-12 on the season, while Victoria falls to 9-4-2 on the season.
As it happened:
The Heat struck first, as Fin Tugwell got on the end of a free kick from Javier Sagaste and directed it just inside the far post in the 27
th minute.
The Cascades battled to get back into the match and got a fortunate bounce just before the end of the first half.
William Stuart directed the ball toward the Victoria goal with an overhead kick in the 42
nd minute. Vikes' goalkeeper Callum Weir stepped out to claim the looping effort, but the ball slipped through his hands and fell to the waiting boot of Brazinha who calmly slotted it into the empty goal for his third of the year.
Just 10 minutes after the break,
Kevin Mailand chipped a brilliant ball forward for Proctor to run on to, and the rookie wasted no time hitting a left-footed volley that struck the right post before finding its way into the back of the net to give the Cascades a lead.
Victoria's best chance of the second half came in the 62
nd minute when Sagaste played a terrific early cross into the box for Yassin Goutini who struck it first time on the volley, but Cascades keeper
Jackson Cowx came up with spectacular reaction save to keep his team in front.
Quotable:
Cascades striker Kian Proctor
"Jackson [Cowx] obviously made a great save after the goal, and moments energize us on the field, and we become more and more united. I'm really happy with the way everyone stuck together today."
"Senior night we get a few more fans out, so hopefully it can energize us against a top team on Sunday. Obviously UBC won't make it easy, but I think we can get a result if we work the way we did tonight."
Cascades head coach Tom Lowndes
"I thought we deserved it tonight. The boys worked so hard, and I think there have been times this year where we haven't gotten what we deserved, but I thought tonight we worked so hard and that's the first one we have grinded out. It wasn't pretty, but we took our chances when they came and I think they got a glimpse of what it takes to be successful at this level, and that's hopefully something we can use moving forward."
"You talk about moments, and fine lines. Us taking that chance on Mateo's goal, and Jackson making that save is obviously huge. We started to get more confident, we were willing to defend, and we started to talk on the pitch. All of the things that have been missing at times this year we started to see tonight, and to get a result against the team that will likely finish second in the division should give us confidence that we can compete with anyone."
Up next:
The Cascades now get ready to host the UBC Thunderbirds in their final game of the season on Sunday at 1pm. Sunday's game will also be the Cascades annual senior game, where graduating players
Manpal Brar and
Kadir Yagci will be celebrated in a pregame ceremony scheduled to start just before 12:30pm.
