Abbotsford, B.C. – Friday night at the University of the Fraser Valley, the UNBC Timberwolves Men's Soccer program kicked off their 2024 season with a 4-1 setback to the UFV Cascades. Third-year forward Mateo Brazinha paced the Cascades with a three-goal, four-point night while Prince George product
Connor Lewis nabbed the first goal of UNBC's season off a slick re-direction in the 63
rd minute.
Seven different Timberwolves (
Logan Pierce,
Pipeijn van der Ende,
Luke Graham,
Jacob Wedel,
Mehdi Bounaaja,
Cole Gunhold and
Matthew Botelho) took to the pitch for the first time in Canada West play on Friday.
1st Half:
The first of two first-half goals for the Cascades came early in the fifth minute of play. An unlucky bounce off a defensive UNBC header ended up on the foot of Brazinha in the penalty area. A few steps later Brazinha went across his body with a low ball to the right of
Logan Pierce and in.
Steve Simonson's club found their footing shortly thereafter and settled things down. Near the 20-minute mark, a series of three corner kicks in a two-minute span resulted in some positive zone time for the Green and Gold.
Isaac Tate had a wonderful chance off a bicycle kick from inside the penalty area, but a savvy block in front of UFV goalkeeper Jackson Cowx kept the home side on top.
With 45 minutes elapsed and the seconds ticking away on the first half of stoppage time, the Cascades came up with a big defensive sequence in their own end. From there, some quick ball movement up the left side of the field ended up with Brazinha in alone behind the UNBC defense. Seconds later, Brazinha tucked home his second of the match, securing his brace and staking UFV to a 2-0 halftime lead.
2nd Half:
The high-point of the night offensively for UNBC came in the 63
rd minute when
Hagon Kim placed a wonderful bending pass into the penalty area from the left wing to the waiting
Connor Lewis.
From there, the Prince George product positioned himself with his back towards the defender and the goalkeeper and tipped the ball over Jackson Cowx with his right foot, bridging the gap to one goal.
For Lewis it marked his sixth career Canada West goal and 10
th career Canada West point.
UNBC's momentum would be short lived however as Brazinha set up Joel Bangura for the third UFV goal just over three minutes later, and the lead for the Cascades was 3-1.
The hat-trick for Brazinha was complete in the 72
nd minute after he finished off a setup from Dante Colebourne.
Despite the three-goal gap, Steve Simonson's club continued to showcase their hustle, heart and high compete-level for the remaining 20-plus minutes. One of the more glaring, consistent examples of heart, hustle and high-compete came from second-year midfielder
James Jordan who played the entire match for UNBC en route to a Mr. Mike's Player of the Game award.
In the End:
When the final whistle sounded, UNBC had mustered 10 total shots to UFV's 8, but the Cascades had six on target while the TWolves had four.
Pierce finished his first career Canada West start with two saves in the TWolves net while Cowx responded with three for UFV.
The two Pacific Division foes will meet again Sunday afternoon at 1:00 pm for the back-half of their opening weekend double-header.
