Coquitlam's Carlo Basso kicked off the Simon Fraser Clan men's university soccer home season with a boom Friday.
The SFU junior and Archbishop Carney high school grad pumped in five goals as the Clan blasted the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack of Kamloops 6-0 at Terry Fox Field.
The six-foot-four Basso knocked in four goals in the first half, then netted his remarkable fifth marker with 27 minutes remaining. His five-goal showing was one shy of the Clan record of six goals in a game, first set by Rob Cirjak in 1988 and matched by Alex Hanne in 2009.
"It was a great start to the season after a pre-season where, at times, we didn't play our best," said Clan head coach Alan Koch. "It was great to see Carlo score five goals."
Alex Rowley bagged the Clan's other tally, with J.D. Blakley scooping the shutout.
On Sunday, another Coquitlam product -- midfielder Jovan Blagojevic -- pounded home two goals to guide the Clan to their second straight victory to open the campaign, a 3-0 triumph over the Vancouver Islander Mariners again at Terry Fox Field.
"I thought, at times, we could have played a little better," said Blagojevic, a Centennial secondary school grad and SFU sophomore. "We were slow to pinch when we should have at times but we had some good stuff going on, too.
"The wingers were able to go out their players and get the crosses in like we should. 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."
The Clan out-shot the Mariners, 9-4.
"The first goal was a free kick and, to be honest, I just wanted to get a good cross in there. I got a lucky bounce and it went in the back of the net," Blagojevic said. "The second one I intercepted the ball and my first thought was goal, so I went for it. I beat the one guy, hit it well and into the net it went."
Justin Wallace rounded out the scoring for the Clan, who next host Southern California's Azusa Pacific on Friday and Hawaii Pacific on Sunday. Both games are 7:30 p.m. starts at Terry Fox Field.
CMF Shakhtar bags gold
Luca Antongiovanni and Michael Dale shared tournament MVP honours as they led their Coquitlam Metro-Ford Shakhtar Under-12 boys unit to the gold medal at the Pacific Coast Challenge last week in Bellingham, Wash.
After falling 1-0 to Whatcom County in round-robin play earlier, Shakhtar reversed the outcome in the championship final, with Hamish Ogden netting the deciding goal.
