Vancouver, BC – Jackson Cowx made eight saves, but it was not enough for the UFV Cascades to earn a point, as the UBC Thunderbirds took a 2-0 victory on Friday night. 

How it happened
A Sebastian Dzikowski double made it five wins out of five to start the season for the defending Canada West champions and took the striker's league leading tally to eight.
 
UBC controlled the bulk of the play in the first half, but some fantastic play from Cowx in the Cascades goal limited the hosts to just one goal. That breakthrough came in the 22^nd minute when a handball was called on rookie Gurnaj Sidhu in the box, and Dzikowski found the back of the net on the ensuing penalty kick. 
  
Cowx came up with two fantastic acrobatic saves late in the half to deny Dzikowski another tally, and despite failing to register a shot in the first half, UFV had a great opportunity to go into the break level. Manpal Brar slipped the ball inside to Mateo Brazinha, but the ball was just behind the midfielder and the change went abegging.
  
The action flowed from end to end without too many clear-cut chances to start the second half, but UFV had a great opportunity to level six minutes from time when Jeevan Dhaliwal was played in but went for goal when a pass inside was perhaps the better option and the break came to nothing.
 
UBC turned the pressure up in stoppage time and Cowx produced another fantastic save to turn away a brilliantly hit curler from Asvin Chauhan.
 
As the Cascades pushed for the late leveller, they were caught on a quick Thunderbirds break as Chauhan tore forward once again, playing the ball inside to Connor Mrazek, who nudged it on to Dzikowski, sealing the deal for UBC when he powerfully fired home through the legs of Cowx.
 
There was still time for Kadir Yagci to almost pull one back for UFV, but he fired into the side netting and UBC continued their perfect start to the season.

Quotable
Cascades head coach Tom Lowndes:
"I'm proud of the boys. We stuck to the game plan, and I thought we executed that plan very well. The goal has come from a PK, and we had a few chances where we got into the final third and the ball was off or the finish was off. It pretty much the same in the second half, we created some things on the counter, and they get the goal when we were pushing forward and it was either going to end up 1-1 or 2-0, but I'm really proud of the effort."
 
Cascades head coach Tom Lowndes on the performance from his goalkeeper:
"The unfortunate thing with a goalkeeper is you can make three worldy saves, and then let one in that you want to do better on and you might be thinking of that one. But I thought Jackson [Cowx] was really good tonight. He made some timely saves, a couple of world class saves, really, that looked like they were in and he somehow kept them out. He'll want that last one back, but he really gave us a chance to stay in the game tonight."

Cascades head coach Tom Lowndes on the defensive play of his forward players:
"I have nothing but praise for those front three – Kian [Proctor], Manny [Brar], and Mateo [Brazinha]. We asked them to do a lot of defending tonight and they did it for the team and they were so unselfish tonight. They Sacrificed going forward at times tonight to help us defend against a very good footballing team. They worked very hard, and they had their moments, and were probably unlucky with a few. We could have been more clinical, but I have nothing but praise for those three."
 
Cascades head coach Tom Lowndes on rookie Adam Szymanski making his Canada West debut:  
"I thought he was really good for that being his first minutes. For him to come in, second half - one nil down, as a rookie at UBC, I thought he was really good and gave us a different look. It's nothing but positive for his future that he came in and did so well."

Where they sit
UFV now moves to 1-2 on the season, while UBC improves to 5-0 to start the year. The Cascades now head to Vancouver Island for a battle with the University of Victoria on Sunday at 2:15 p.m. (PT) to close out the weekend. Watch the game live on Canada West TV.