Grayson B. Leahy - Heat Sports Information
KELOWNA, B.C. - The UBC Okanagan men's soccer team rounded out a victorious weekend with a 3-0 win over the UFV Cascades on Sunday afternoon at Nonis Field. The win will place the Heat in second place in Canada West's Pacific Division standings with a .593 winning percnetage, and earned Heat keeper Mitch McCaw his fourth consecutive clean sheet. The conference is unbalanced this year and the men's standings will be determined by winning percentage (wins x 3 + ties)/ (games played x 3) as opposed to points for wins and ties.
The scoring got started midway through the first half, with the opening goal netted in the 22nd minute by Sam McDonald with an assist from Nikhil Reddy. Reddy also assisted on the second goal of the match, scored by Hamish Walde. At half time each side had recorded four shots, and the Heat were up 2-0. The Cascades best chance in the first half came early on as David Parfett hit a solid strike in the seventh minute that Mccaw just got his hands up in time to send the ball over the crossbar.
The second half saw the Heat get off three shots to the Cascades' two, with the only goal of the latter 45 coming from Andrei Stalfort in the 84th minute. Heat keeper Mitch McCaw didn't have to record a save in the second, as there were technically no recorded shots on goal, but was nearly beaten by the best opportunity of the match for UFV when Elijah Sampson put a rocket of a shot off the post and out in the 82nd minute.
Scoring Plays
Sam McDonald's goal in the 22nd was a well-placed header, off of a driving corner kick into the box from Nikhil Reddy, that beat UFV keeper David Hicks to the top right corner of the net.
The second goal was nearly a carbon copy of the first. Once again it was Nikhil Reddy feeding a strong ball into the box, this time on a cross rather than a corner, and Hamish Walde got a leaping head on it to put the ball back into the top right corner of the Cascades net.
The third goal of the game, and the only one of the second half, came when the Heat broke through the Cascades defence with strong passing in the 84th minute. After a number of passes around the UFV defensive area, Andrei Stalfort took an excellent lead pass from Cole Kingzett and placed the ball confidently into the bottom right hand corner of the goal. It was the third goal of the season for the first year Heat forward from Bucharest.
Inside the numbers
With the two in the Sunday match, Nikhil Reddy has earned assists on six of the Heat's 14 goals so far this season, accounting for about 43% of Heat scoring. He is currently tied for second-most in assists in Canada West this season.
After his fourth consecutive clean sheat victory, and fifth of the season, Heat keeper Mitch McCaw owns the second-best save percentage in Canada West, at .886, and is tied for the second-best goals against average, with 0.63.
Hamish Walde, after scoring his fourth goal of the season in the first half on Sunday, sits in a tie for the fourth-most goals in the conference this season.
What's Next
The UBC Okanagan Heat (5-3-1) have another weekend at home coming up, as the UNBC Timberwolves (4-5-3) will come to Nonis Field in Kelowna for a pair of games set for 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 7th and Sunday, October 8th.
The UFV Cascades (3-5-2) play next in a home-and-home series against the Trinity Western Spartans (5-3-4), in Langley on Friday, October 6th and in Abbotsford on Sunday, October 8th.