Thunder Overwhelm Wolves in Division Quarterfinals

The Concordia University of Edmonton (CUE) Thunder men's soccer team opened their quest for an ACAC Conference Championship Friday afternoon as they welcomed the Grande Prairie Regional College (GPRC) Wolves in North Division Quarter-Final action. The Thunder came firing out of the gate and maintained control throughout the match as they took this one 7-0 to advance to the North Division Semi-Finals.

As soon as the opening whistle went, the Thunder maintained control and possession, applying immediate pressure to the Wolves defence. This pressure resulted in a goal less than 10 minutes in as #21 Emmanuel Mboli finished off a beautiful pass from #12 Stefan Sikanja to put the Thunder up 1-0 early. The Thunder continued to apply this pressure throughout the opening half, as #9 Ahmed Abubaker scored four goals in a row for the Thunder to give them a 5-0 lead at the half. The Wolves opened the second half strong, keeping the Thunder pinned in their own half for the first 10 minutes. But they weren't able to break through the Thunder backline, as the 5-0 scoreline stood until #16 Elias Vargar-Menares broke through on the counterattack to give the Thunder the 6-0 lead. The Thudner would add one more in second half injury time for the 7-0 final scoreline. The One Team Sports players of the game were #3 Jared Perry for the GPRC Wolves and #9 Ahmed Abubaker for the Thunder.

After the game, Thunder head coach Hussein Shabdi was thrilled with what he saw: "we finally got rhythm and played the soccer that we wanted to play all season long." First year defender Josh Acevedo also liked what the Thunder brought to the table this game: "we really showed ourselves who we are in the first half, and we held on."

The Thunder's post-season push continues Sunday afternoon as they head to the NAIT Ooks in ACAC North Division Semi-Final Action.