EDMONTON - An impressive Canada West regular season, including earning four of a possible six points in the final weekend, vaulted the Golden Bears in a position to host a playoff game for the first time since 2018.

Head coach Martin Fenger-Andersen led this upstart Alberta team to a 4-1-5 record in Central division play this year, good for second place and a home quarter-final match at Foote Field this Friday against the 4-3-5 Fraser Valley Cascades.
 
Alberta owns a 10-3-4 all-time record against UFV, but have lost both playoff meetings against the Cascades, losing in the 2013 and 2015 quarter-final.

Both teams enter the contest in-form, with Alberta stringing together three straight clean sheets, and the Cascades not having lost since October 1^st.

HEAD-TO-HEAD COMPARISON

	ALBERTA	FRASER VALLEY
CW Record (Position)	4-1-5 (2nd Central)	4-3-5 (3rd West)
GF/G (Rank)	1.10 (10th)	1.25 (9th)
GA/G (Rank)	0.40 (1st)	1.08 (6th)
Clean Sheets (Rank)	6 (1st)	2 (9th)
Leader Goals (Rank)	Ajeej Sarkaria - 7 - (2nd)	Speiss, Zanatta, Richardson, Brar - 3 - (t6)
Leader Assists (Rank)	Patino, Cunningham - 2 - (t5)	Trevor Zanatta - 5 - (2nd)
Goaltender (Record)	Liam Collens (4-1-5)	Jackson Cowx (4-2-4)
Form, Last 5	W-L-T-W-T	W-T-T-W-W
Last Playoff Appearance	2019	2018

The Golden Bears sport the conference's best defensive record, led in the net by outstanding second-year goalkeeper Liam Collens. The Calgary product paced the league in clean sheets (6), save percentage (.915), GAA (0.40), and nearly every other major goalkeeper statistical category. 

Their attack is led by fifth-year striker Ajeej Sarkaria, the newly minted Canada West all-time leading scorer, finishing his Bears career with 44 goals and 70 career points. He netted seven goals in nine contests this year, including a hat-trick against the MacEwan Griffins earlier this season. Dynamic thrid-year attacking midfielder Carlos Patino orchestrates this attack, with two assists and two goals of his own.

The Bears are incredibly strong at the back, with captain Noah Cunningham leading the Bears to the best defensive record in  Canada West this season.

The Cascades play a balanced game, propped up by incredible depth across the pitch. They have four players with three goals, the highest in the conference.

This team is led by third-year midfielder Trevor Zanatta, who leads the team in goals (3) and assists (5), and ranked second in the conference with eight points.

This team is also strong at the back, with rookie centre-back Tobias Spiess providing the steel that helped Fraser Valley to a sixth ranked defensive record. The Nuremberg, Germany product also chipped in with three goals of his own.

This game features two very strong defensive squads, with the match perhaps coming down to who scores first. Expect a lot of possession based soccer, with efficient and clinical counter-attacks being the key to victory.

The game kicks off at 2:00 p.m. on Friday at Foote Field. The winner gets a berth in the Canada West final four, facing the winner of the Victoria Vikes (6-3-3, 1st West) and the MacEwan Griffins (4-2-2, 4th Central).