By Bryan Scott
SFU jumps out to 2-0 after two shutouts, to start the season
The SFU men’s soccer team continued their winning ways from last year, with two lopsided victories over Thompson River University and Vancouver Island University over the last week to begin the season. Neither were conference games, but the Clan will take the 2–0 start to the season.
Carlo Basso (Coquitlam, B.C.) had five of the Clan’s six goals, and JD Blakley (Saskatoon, SK) stopped all shots against to record the shutout. With five goals in one game, Basso was just short of the SFU record of six, which was set in 1988 and matched in 2009. After the game, head coach Alan Koch said, “It was great to see Carlo (Basso) score five goals tonight, and Michael (Winter) was a workhorse in the midfield and kept us going.” He was right about Winter’s play, as he was named the Red Lion Defensive Player of the Week in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Carlo Basso was a honourable mention on the offensive side.
On Sept. 2nd, SFU made quick work of the visiting Vancouver Island Mariners, beating them 3–0 at Terry Fox Field. This time midfielder Jovan Blagojevic (Coquitlam, B.C.), in his first game of the season, led the way with two goals. Even with the win, Blagojevic remarked that “we finished pretty well for the most part, but there’s still a lot of work to do and hopefully it gets better from here.” Justin Wallace (Kamloops, B.C.) picked up the final goal for the Clan in 60th minute.
