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Winless weekend for UFV soccer teams

Men’s team posts draw in Abbotsford, women record loss and draw
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Taylor Richardson’s winds up for a shot during Canada West soccer action in Abbotsford on Friday (Sept. 23). (Jordie Arthur/UFV Cascades)

The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades men’s and women’s soccer teams battled through a hard fought, but ultimately winless weekend in Canada West soccer action.

The men hosted the Alberta Golden Bears at Rotary Stadium on Friday and earned a 3-3 draw after a dramatic late-goal by forward Taylor Richardson in the 97th minute.

The Langley product booted home the tying goal from the top of the box to break Alberta’s 3-2 lead.

“It was a nail biter right until the last minute. I wasn’t really thinking much, just had to touch and get it out of my feet and get the shot off and it turned out pretty well” said Richardson post-game.

“It’s good to get the monkey off my back and get a couple goals in. The boys had a lot of fight today. They found me in the right spaces and I got the ball in the net.”

The tying goal was Richardson second of the game, as he also scored the Cascades second goal at 56:18 which put them up 2-1 at the time.

Manpal Brar opened the scoring and tied the game up at one with a goal just before the end of the first half. Alberta outshot the Cascades 15-13 in the contest. The draw puts the Cascades record at 2-4-1 and they sit in fifth place in the CW’s Pacific Division.

The Cascades hit the road later this week as they visit UBC Okanagan on Friday (Sept. 30), and Thompson Rivers University on Saturday (Oct. 1).

“It will be another tough weekend,” Cascades head coach Tom Lowndes stated. “They are two tough places to play and we are going to have to be up for the fight again.”

The next home game for the team is on Oct. 9 when the TWU Spartans come to Abbotsford.

The women returned from games on the road against the UBC-O Heat and TRU WolfPack, losing 1-0 on Friday (Sept. 23) to the Heat and 2-1 on Saturday (Sept. 24) to the WolfPack.

Amanda White’s goal in the 32nd minute proved to be the difference on Friday, as the Cascades were blanked for the third time this season.

UFV head coach Niko Marcina applauded his team’s defensive effort despite the result on the day.

“We knew they were going to maintain very good possession of the ball, but we set up an action plan to eliminate goal scoring opportunities and I thought for the majority of the game we did a very good job of that.”

“They only had one shot on goal, but credit to them for getting it past our back line and punishing us.”

The offence produced on Saturday, as Lucianna Andrews notched her second goal of the season in the 44th minute to put UFV up 1-0 but TRU replied with two in the second half.

UFV was outshot 20-13 in the game.

“We aren’t a team that makes excuses, but the reality is that we just played five games in eight days and all of those games included some sort of travel” stated head coach Niko Marcina. “The body will eventually succumb to all that travel fatigue, and the minds are not necessarily going to be fresh for 90 minutes.”

The women remain winless this season, with three draws and five losses in eight games. The team is at risk to be eliminated from the playoffs soon if they fail to start recording some wins.

They next host the UBC Thunderbirds on Friday (Sept. 30) and then the Calgary Dinos on Sunday (Oct. 2) at Rotary Stadium.

For more visit, gocascades.ca.

RELATED: UFV Cascades women’s soccer earn second straight draw



Ben Lypka

About the Author: Ben Lypka

I joined the Abbotsford News in 2015.
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