Courtesy of University of New Brunswick sports information / Photo credit Rob Blanchard

FREDERICTON (CIS) – The defending champion UBC Thunderbirds survived a scare in their first game of the 2013 CIS men’s soccer championship as they edged the Montreal Carabins 1-0, Thursday afternoon at the BMO field, to return to the national Final Four.

Sean Einarsson of Surrey, B.C., scored the lone goal of the match in the 68th minute for the nationally top-ranked T-Birds, who are looking to add to their record collection of 12 Sam Davidson Memorial Trophies – eight more than any other team – and now show a mind-boggling 39-5-1 all-time mark (.878) in their 19th appearance at the CIS tournament.

In a losing effort, the RSEQ finalist Carabins outplayed their Vancouver rivals for the first 45 minutes and even thought they had opened the scoring before the break, but the goal was disallowed due to an offside call.

UBC bench boss Mike Mosher, who was named CIS coach of the year prior to the competition, knew his troops didn’t have the upper hand in the first half.

“Montreal outplayed us right from the start, and we got lucky when their goal was called back. We knew coming into this game that Pat (Montreal head coach Raimondo) was going to have his team fired up, and that’s exactly what he did.”

While the rain had held off for the first quarter-final of the day between York and Saint Mary’s, the same could not be said for the second contest. The rain started coming down hard at the end of the first period, and it didn’t let up the entire time.

“It was a hard game to play in, but our guys didn’t let it get to them, and they played one of their better games of the season, it was just a tough result in the end,” explained Raimondo.

Towards the end of the game, things started to get a little rough between both teams and it looked as though Montreal was taking advantage of this style of play. The Carabins had control of the ball for the final 10 minutes, with multiple scoring opportunities, but were unable to capitalize.

“It was great to see our team continue to push until the final whistle, but in the end UBC was the better team,” said Raimondo.

Paul Clerc, a first-team all-Canadian from Coquitlam, B.C., was named player of the match for UBC, while Vincent De Bruille, a fifth-year defender from Belgium, earned the honour for Montreal.

In Friday’s early semifinal at 4 p.m. Atlantic Time, the Canada West champion Thunderbirds will face the OUA titlist York Lions, who beat Saint Mary’s 3-0 earlier Thursday.

Montreal moves to the consolation side of the draw and will battle Saint Mary’s Friday at 11 a.m. AT.

SCORING SUMMARY:
UBC: 0-1:1
MTL: 0-0:0

First Half
(no scoring)

Second Half
1. UBC Sean Einarsson (1) (Niall Cousens), 68th
 
Goalkeepers:
UBC: Luke O’Shea (W, 0 GA, 1 saves, 90:00, 1-0)
MTL: Kenan Morina(L, 1 GA, 5 saves, 90:00, 0-1)

Team Stats
Shots: MTL 1, UBC 6
Corners: MTL 2, UBC 1
Fouls: MTL 11, UBC 15
Yellow cards: MTL 3, UBC 2
Red cards: none
Offsides: MTL 2, UBC 0

Players of the game:
UBC: Paul Clerc
MTL: Vincent De Bruille

SCHEDULE & RESULTS (ATLANTIC TIME)

Thursday, Nov. 7
11:00 Quarter-final 1: York 3, Saint Mary’s 0
13:30 Quarter-final 2: UBC 1, Montreal 0
16:00 Quarter-final 3: Laval vs. Ryerson (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
18:30 Quarter-final 4: UNB vs. Saskatchewan (www.CIS-SIC.tv)

Friday, Nov. 8
11:00 Consolation 1: Saint Mary’s vs. Montreal (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
13:30 Consolation 2: Loser QF 3 vs. Loser QF 4 (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
16:00 Semifinal 1: York vs. UBC (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
18:30 Semifinal 2: Winner QF 3 vs. Winner QF 4 (www.CIS-SIC.tv)

Saturday, Nov. 9
14:30 5th-place game (www.CIS-SIC.tv)

Sunday, Nov. 10
11:00 Bronze medal (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
14:00 Championship final (www.CIS-SIC.tv)

About Canadian Interuniversity Sport

Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, 11,000 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 55 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca or follow us on:

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