Coquitlam’s Sophia Ferreira is no stranger to heroics on the soccer pitch.
As a Grade 9 winger for the Centennial Centaurs senior girls team in 2018, Ferreira scored the game-winning goal in extra time to win its first high school championship in 19 years.
On Sunday, Nov. 10, at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, the senior fullback for the UBC Thunderbirds scored the only goal in her side's U-SPORTS championship victory over the Laval Rouge et Or.
The win was the icing on a perfect 20-0 season for the T-Birds, including six consecutive clean sheets through the Canada West and U SPORTS playoffs. It also avenged a loss to Laval in the quarter-finals of the 2022 championship.
Since then, UBC has won two consecutive national titles, a Canada West championship and outscored their opponents 125-10.
In the team’s latest conquest, Ferreira’s game winner came in an aerial scramble off a corner kick by teammate Taiya Dennehy just before halftime.
WSOC : @ubctbirds score and take the lead right before halftime!
— U SPORTS Soccer (@USPORTS_Soccer) November 10, 2024
SOCF : @ubctbirds marque et prend les devants juste avant la mi-temps! @ubctbirds 1@rougeetor 0#ChaseTheGlory | #ViserHaut pic.twitter.com/j8i2WkmclG
“We’ve talked set pieces all year, Sophia got up and did so well,” said UBC coach Jesse Symons.
“Then we just shut it down which we’ve done all year.”
In her fourth season with the Thunderbirds, Ferreira scored three times and added four assists in 16 matches.
Her younger sister, Ava, is a sophomore on the team, while Dr. Charles Best grad Sofia Peckenpaugh is a freshman.
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