UBC’s baby ‘Birds rally for season-opening soccer win

After fielding one of the most dominant sides in its program’s history, the UBC men’s soccer team turned over a new page Saturday.

Coming off a season in which the only blemish on its 14-1-2 record came in the CIS national semifinals, the Thunderbirds entered Saturday’s Canada West conference opener in Kamloops against the Thompson Rivers WolfPack minus 12 players from last season’s national bronze medallists.

Despite trailing 1-0 in the first half on a goal by Justin Donaldson, the ’Birds youthful crew found a way to maintain composure and ultimately pulled out a 2-1 victory in the 74th minute when freshman Manpal Brar took a feed from fifth-year defender Bryan Fong and scored for the third time in five games.

“Every year is a different chapter and we’re lucky we have some holdover fifth-year guys left like Bryan and Tyler (Mertens) in the back,” said UBC head coach Mike Mosher. “But the beauty of today was that, when we put a pair of freshmen on, they helped change the game.”

Brar and fellow forward Zach Verhoeven, both club teammates at Surrey United, came off the bench for the second half, one which was dominated by UBC.

Titouan Chopin’s blast in the 56th minute bounced off the bar and off a WolfPack player to tie the score, setting the stage for Brar’s tally.

UBC continues its season-opening road trip Sunday in Kelowna when it faces the UBC Okanagan Heat.