Caps In College 2013: The opening CIS weekend and NCAA week 2

It was a busy opening CIS weekend for the local universities. The big three in the province were all in action, with varying results. It was also the opening weekend for NCAA Division II and there were a number of homegrown Whitecaps players featured in week two of the NCAA Division I season.

SFU

It was a successful weekend for Simon Fraser University as the Clan swept their first two games on the road in California. On Thursday, SFU opened their season with a 2-1 win over Cal State East Bay Pioneers. Senior Lucas Ferrito scored the Clan’s first goal of the season in the 10th minute, with the Pioneers drawing level four minutes later. That was how it remained until B.C. native Jules Chopin netted the winner in the 49th minute.

They returned to action on Saturday to beat the Holy Names Hawks 4-3 in a game that saw a flurry of goals in a twelve minute span. German midfielder Chris Bargholz opened the scoring in the 17th minute and North Delta’s Ryan Dhillon doubled SFU’s advantage minutes later. The home side rallied to tie the game by the 29th minute and the two teams went into the half even. It took only two minutes of the second half for SFU to take back the lead, with Lucas Ferrito scoring his second of the season. Less than a minute later, Juan Sanchez scored the eventual winner in the 48th minute and despite the Hawks pulling a goal back with 14 minutes of the game remaining, the Clan held out for the win.

Of the Whitecaps Residency graduates, Spencer DeBoice is still injured and did not feature in either game for the Clan, whilst Alex Rowley started both games and had three shots, one on target. Jason van Blerk came on as sub against Holy Names and had one shot on target.

SFU will return home for a pair of home games next week where they will face Hawaii Pacific at 7:30 on Thursday and Trinity Lutheran on Saturday at 3:30pm.

CIS

The defending CIS champions UBC Thunderbirds had mixed results in their opening weekend.

It was a strong start for UBC as they travelled to the island to beat big rivals Victoria Vikes 4-1 on Friday evening. It didn’t take long for the T-Birds to get their 2013 campaign off the mark when Milad Mehrabi converted a cross from Whitecaps PDL player Harry Lakhan in the 13th minute to open the scoring. Paul Clerc scored on a free header from a Navid Mashinchi corner on the half hour mark to give UBC a 2-0 half time lead and there was no looking back after that.

UBC continued their dominance in the air in the second half and Whitecaps PDL top scorer Niall Cousens scored his first competitive goal of the season for the Thunderbirds on another corner, this one from another former Caps PDL’er, Reynold Stewart. Just before the hour mark another first year player, Sean Einarsson, caught the Vikes on a counterattack and his shot was turned into the net by a Vikes defender to put UBC up 4-0. The cleansheet was spoiled in the 84th minute as Craig Gorman sent a corner directly into the net for his first of the season.

UBC headed home for their second game on Sunday but it wasn’t a happy return as they suffered a surprising 1-0 loss to Fraser Valley, their first CIS defeat since November 6th 2011. It was a close call for Mashinchi in the 35th minute as his shot hit the bar and then minutes later another just sailed over the bar. Ante Boskovic made eight saves in his debut with the T-Birds but was unable to stop Connor MacMillan from ten yards out in the 87th minute. There was a chance for defending champs to draw even in the final minute but Mashinchi was stopped from in close.

The University of Victoria had better luck on Sunday and they rebounded to beat Trinity Western 4-0 and move to 1-0-1 on the season. They opened the scoring in the 33rd minute when Whitecaps PDL player Cam Hundal converted a flicked on corner by Craig Gorman. It was a close game until the 70th minute when second half sub Kurt Macaulay cut across the defender and fired his shot into the net to double the lead. A penalty kick by Hundal in the 90th and an injury time goal by Cameron Stokes finished up the scoring for Victoria.

The Thunderbirds look to rebound from their loss when they take on Trinity Western in a home and home series with 7 pm starts on Friday at UBC and on Saturday in Langley. Victoria will be on the road for the next two games as they travel to face Winnipeg on Friday before taking on Mount Royal (Calgary) on Saturday.

Caps In College

There were a lot of minutes for Ben McKendry. He played 110 minutes in both road games for the number 9 ranked New Mexico Lobos, in a 1-1 draw against VCU and the 1-0 win over number 11 ranked Georgetown, contributing two shots in each game.

Callum Irving started and picked up his second straight cleansheet the Kentucky Wildcats in a 4-0 win over IPFW in Lexington.

In Wright State’s season opener Wesley Cain scored on an 85th minute header from a free kick to make it 1-1, as the Raiders defeated Marshall 3-2 in golden goal extra time. Cain had six shots during the game, five of them on target. You can see his goal below, along with his trademark backflip celebration.

Declan Rodriguez started and played 110 minutes in a 1-1 draw against Drake and then followed up with another start (45 minutes) as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee beat Bowling Green 2-0.

Sean Melvin started both games for UNC-Wilmington this weekend. The keeper saw his team lose to Presbyterian 2-1, making two saves, before rebounding with a 3-1 win over Mercer, recording three saves.

Chilliwack’s Brody Huitema started for Duke and played 82 minutes as the Blue Devils lost 3-1 to the number 13 ranked Maryland. Huitema was only able to muster one shot all match. Duke are back in action tonight against Georgia Southern.

Finally, Quinton Duncan’s University of Tulsa won both of their games to earn the Hurricane Classic Trophy. Duncan started, playing 79 minutes, in a 4-1 win over Ohio State and then started, playing 39 minutes, as they beat SIU-Edwardsville 2-0 on Sunday.