After a 4-1 loss to Vancouver United FC on Saturday, the Vancouver Thunderbirds soccer club bounced back with a dominant performance, blanking FC Tigers Vancouver 6-0 at Rashpal Dhillon Field last night. The victory moves the Thunderbirds up to fourth place in the Pacific Coast Soccer League, a league that runs through the summer months with clubs from across the Pacific Northwest.
“One of our goals today was not to concede a goal,” said T-Birds coach Mike Mosher. “In 10 games to date we have had only one shutout so that was mission accomplished today. It was nice to score some goals for a change and have a little bit of an easier game.”
The Thunderbirds roared right from the get-go and had a chance to convert from the penalty spot three minutes in after Luke Griffin was taken down by Tigers goalkeeper Lukas Strauts. Strauts, however, made up for his mistake by denying Reynold Stewart’s penalty kick with a brilliant stop.The T-Birds got their breakthrough in the 25th minute when Sean Einarsson converted a one-on-one opportunity, slotting the ball past Strauts to give his team an early lead. The lead was quickly doubled after Strauts committed yet another foul in the box, giving the Thunderbirds their second spot kick of the half. This time, Stewart made no mistake, capitalizing on the penalty. To make matters worse for the Tigers, Strauts was given a yellow card for the challenge.
Though FC Tigers played well enough to keep the match close in the first half, everything started to fall apart shortly after halftime. Thunderbirds’ midfielder Lucas Reis scored four goals in a span of 17 minutes to put the game out of reach. The first was off a Tigers’ turnover in the 48th minute. Reis stole the ball from defender Joshua Cremen to put home his first goal. Four minutes later, Reis scored again, firing the ball past Strauts, following a fantastic passing play. Reis scored his hat trick goal with a brilliant header off a corner kick in the 61st minute. Then, in the 65th minute, Reis volleyed the ball home to complete his phenomenal four-goal performance after Sean Einarsson’s long range attempt went off the crossbar and fell right to Reis.
“It’s a rare feat that somebody gets four goals in a game, let alone in a 15 to 20 minute time period,” said Mosher. “It’s crazy in that he’s outdone his entire goal performance for the season in 20 minutes.”
Reis and the Thunderbirds will look for a similar performance when they are back in action at UBC tomorrow against the Mid Isles Mariners.