VANCOUVER, B.C. - UBC Thunderbirds moved one step closer to securing a sixth straight Canada West men's soccer title at Thunderbird Stadium on Friday evening with a 3-0 quarter-final victory over the visiting Calgary Dinos, who had to play just over a half of the match with 10 men following a Dinos red card for dissent.

Second half goals from Sebastian Dzikowski, saw the nationally number one ranked Thunderbirds carve out the win in the new-look playoff format, setting up semifinal on Saturday that would see them book their place at November's U SPORTS men's soccer championship with another victory. Saturday's match will mark the 18th consecutive Canada West semifinal appearance by the T-Birds dating back to 2004.

"We were prepared and what we saw, we were prepared for," UBC head coach Mike Mosher said after the match. "The way they set up and getting numbers behind the ball. We knew it was going to be difficult at times to break them down. We got some chances, we got some looks in the first half. The red card certainly helps and changes the game at the stage at which it came. Then an early goal in the second half."

UBC dominated the match and it felt a matter of when and no if the breakthrough would come and when it did there was no looking back for Mike Mosher's side.

The rematch of last year's Canada West championship game was always going to be a closely contested affair. That match went all the way to penalties and the side's only meeting this season back in September was settled by a single goal in a 1-0 UBC win.



With that in mind, the Thunderbirds wanted to come out of the blocks fast and try and get the early breakthrough. They almost got it as well four minutes in but Chris Lee's goalbound header was expertly tipped over by Liam Hunter in the Dinos' goal.

Calgary had a couple of penalty shouts when Gianmarco Plenzik went down in the box, but the referee waved away the Dinos appeals.

UBC were dominating the play and possession without carving out any clear cut goal scoring opportunities, but they turned the heat up in the final 15 minutes of the half.

Lee had a shot miss narrowly left before Hunter denied Luke Norman with a superb acrobatic save.



Then came the game-changing moment with six minutes of the half remaining. UBC were award a free kick in the Calgary half. Li Ramaholison wasn't happy with the decision and let the referee know about it to earn a yellow card. The first-year midfielder would continue talking to the ref, picking up a second yellow for dissent and Calgary had to play the remainder of a match a man down.

Goalless at the half, and as resolute as the Dinos defending was, it was always going to be a tough task for them to keep hanging on under constant Thunderbirds pressure. Their resolve last just four minutes after the restart before UBC finally broke the deadlock,
 

MSOC | The @CanadaWest regular season scoring leader gets the 'Birds on the board early in the second half of their quarter-final battle with Calgary as Sebastian Dzikowski makes it 1-0! #GoBirdsGo pic.twitter.com/epO5UnMSbF

— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) October 28, 2023

Brennan Fuerst did well to keep the ball from going out behind the goal. His high pass was fumbled by Hunter, right to the feet of Dzikowski, who wasn't going to miss from close range. He didn't and the Thunderbirds had the lead.

UBC doubled their lead in the 56^th minute when Pena had a neat finish at the back post after getting onto a ball in from Norman.

Hunter produced a fingertip save to tip a superb curling Lee free kick off the right post just past the hour mark, before Kaiser rattled one of the bar with a fierce strike in the 70^th minute.
 

MSOC | T-Birds captain Noah Hrdlicka after earning a spot in Saturday's @CanadaWest semifinal with a 3-0 win over the Dinos at Thunderbird Stadium pic.twitter.com/AULxVt9SS8

— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) October 28, 2023

Kaiser wasn't to be denied though and his long range effort took a deflection past Hunter to give UBC their third in the 72^nd minute.

UBC will now face either the Alberta Golden Bears or old foes Trinity Western Spartans in Saturday's semi-final at Thunderbird Stadium, with a place in next week's Canada West championship game and a place at nationals on the line.

"We'll be ready to go tomorrow," Mosher said of Saturday's semi-final. "We haven't had to travel, we've been at home for many, many weeks now. We should be well rested. It'll be a challenging game. There's no doubt."

Kickoff for the semifinal is set for 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available online and the game will be streamed live on Canada West TV.