Resilient T-Birds pull out second straight comeback win

VANCOUVER, B.C. – UBC Thunderbirds (2-0-0) kept their perfect start to the new season intact with a hard fought 2-1 victory over the visiting Trinity Western Spartans (0-2-0) at Thunderbirds Stadium on Saturday evening.

The Thunderbirds had to come from behind once again to do it, however, after Emmanuel Dan-Adokiene headed the Spartans into a fifth minute lead. UBC settled and took the game to Trinity Western, levelling things up through a Max Comsia goal in the 26th minute before Brennan Fuerst fired them into the lead four minutes before halftime.

That was to be the end of the scoring, in another tough test for UBC in the defence of the Canada West and U SPORTS crowns. But it was a test that once again showed the resilience of Mike Mosher's side.
 

"Resilience and relief that we can score goals," Mosher said after the match. "Disappointing right off the start. A couple of things happened and then they get set pieces and the guy's got on the end of it. We just have to start games better. We made a mess for ourselves and we dug ourselves out fairly quickly. It was 2-1 at the half and it could have been five with the chances that we had.

"The quality dropped a little bit in the second half unfortunately, but it's weekend number one. You're not going to have it all figured out in weekend number one, certainly with a lot of new faces in the squad and whatnot. If you told me two hard-fought wins, six points at the start of the weekend, you'd take it in a heartbeat."

The visitors came out fast and strong and were putting UBC under all sorts of early pressure. It paid off just five minutes in when Charles Nana whipped in a dangerous corner and Dan-Adokiene bulleted home a header from in the six-yard box, giving the Spartans the 1-0 lead.

Trinity Western kept their pressure on and nearly grabbed a second six minutes later when Jordan Low made something from nothing and brought out a great save from Jack Garner.



UBC slowly settled and took over the game, winning corner after corner as they pushed for the equalizer. They got it in the 26th minute when Henri Godbout's pass found Comsia in the box and the big forward showed lovely footwork to make room for the shot, tucking it away into the bottom right corner.

Fifteen minutes later and Fuerst found the exact same spot, after being played in by Yu-Hsuan Hwan to give UBC a lead they weren't to give up.

UBC started the second half where they left off in the first and took the game to Trinity Western, with Theo Afework firing a shot just over the bar four minutes after the restart. The Spartans responded with a nice solo effort from Low, which Garner saved well.



Markus Rukavina got his head on the end of a Markus Kaiser cross in from the right in the 73rd minute, forcing acrobatics out of Spartans keeper Peter Rogenthien to tip it over the bar. UBC saw out the remainder of the game fairly comfortably from there for their second win of the new campaign.

UBC head on the road next week when they travel to Kamloops on Friday to take on Thompson Rivers University in the first of four straight away games. Trinity Western head home for the first time this season for a match-up in Langley with the UNBC Timberwolves on Friday night.