UFV Cascades men’s soccer bounced in Canada West playoff quarter-final

The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades men’s soccer team ran into a hot team at the wrong time in the Canada West playoffs.

Coming off the program’s best-ever regular season, the favoured UFV squad matched up with the University of Alberta Golden Bears for Friday’s (Oct. 30) quarter-final game at Calgary’s McMahon Stadium.

Alberta entered the game on a four-game unbeaten streak and wasted little time on Friday when Prince Amanda delivered a perfect corner and found teammate Caden Ruby in the box in the eighth minute.

Alberta connects on the first corner, 1-0 early https://t.co/FJyOmIzc17

Nine minutes later Ruby then set up Anson Minty, who flicked the ball over Cascades goalkeeper Matheus De Souza to make it 2-0 in the 18th minute. Those two goals proved to be enough and Alberta held on for the 2-0 win.

The Cascades had a number of glorious opportunities, including a shot off the post by striker Mateo Brazinha in the 14th minute, one chance from Brazinha that was called offside and another that was denied by Alberta goalkeeper Lucas Robson. The Golden Bears finished with a 10-9 shots advantage and also had a 4-3 corners edge.

Brazinha denied late https://t.co/Nlu8dwEukb

“The game is obviously made up of moments,” said Cascades head coach Tom Lowndes. “A bad set-piece goal that we conceded and then a scrappy second one that’s not really like us, and then we’re up against it. I thought we played OK. I thought we created some chances.”

Lowndes praised his team’s effort to the final whistle.

“I’m proud of my guys. We battled to the end, we kept going,” he said. “We’ve been really good all season and one game doesn’t define this group.”

The result ends a landmark season for the Cascades. The team achieved the program’s first top-10 national ranking, and its best regular-season points total, with just three losses in 16 regular-season games.

“Obviously, it hurts right now,” he said. “But when we look back, I think we’ll be proud of what we achieved this season.”

The game was also the last in Cascades colours for graduating seniors Brazinha, Kevin Mailand, Michael Beecroft and Bhagvir Sidhu.

Alberta advanced to the semifinal on Sunday (Nov. 1) and then posted a 3-2 win over the host University of Calgary Dinos. The Golden Bears next take on the number-one ranked University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in the Canada West final in Vancouver on Friday (Nov. 6).