Abbotsford/Prince George – Men’s Soccer: Minhas’s goal, Duggan’s saves help Cascades earn a tie with T-Wolves
The University of the Fraser Valley men’s soccer team battled the UNBC Timberwolves to a 1-1 stalemate in Prince George on Friday evening.
Parman Minhas gave the Cascades a 1-0 lead in the fourth minute of play, and freshman goalkeeper Ethan Duggan stood tall at the other end of the pitch to preserve the 1-0 margin for much of the night, but the host T-Wolves salvaged a point on Abou Cisse’s strike in the 75th minute.
The Cascades (0-2-1) and T-Wolves (1-1-1) renew hostilities on Sunday in Prince George (1 p.m., CanadaWest.tv).
“I think it could have finished 5-5, to be honest,” UFV head coach Tom Lowndes said afterward. “The first 15-20 minutes we were really good, and we should have been up 3-0. We only took one of those chances, and from then on, I thought we were poor. For whatever reason – travel, lack of confidence – we didn’t perform well from that point, and we allowed them to dictate the pace of the game.”
The Cascades opened the scoring after Brady Weir tracked down the ball deep in the UNBC penalty area and cut it back to Minhas, who tucked a low shot inside the near post.
UFV had a golden opportunity to double the lead later in the half as Gurmaan Jhaj stole the ball from a UNBC defender and broke in with Minhas on a two-man breakaway. But with T-Wolves keeper Rob Goodey rushing out at him, Jhaj tried unsuccessfully to poke the ball over to Minhas and the play was broken up.
The T-Wolves had plenty of dangerous forays of their own in the first half, outshooting the Cascades 12-6 over the opening 45 minutes, and Duggan was called upon to make six saves.
UNBC continued to press in the second half, and finally solved Duggan on an outstanding play by Cisse. He made a sharp cut to his right to elude two UFV defenders in the box, and unleashed a rising shot from close range that found the top corner, far side.
The Cascades had a near-miss in the 82nd minute on a free kick from just outside the UNBC penalty area. Rajan Bains’s effort got past Goodey, but thumped off the post. Later on, Trevor Zanatta, from a sharp angle to the right of goal, sent a shot of his own off the post.
Duggan finished with 12 saves – the most any keeper has registered thus far in the young Canada West season.
Jehmrode Kahlon, the Cascades’ highly touted rookie midfielder, made his Cascades debut on Friday and played the full 90 minutes.
“I thought he was a real bright spot for us,” Lowndes said. “He was lively.”
