Scheduled Game: @British Columbia*

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GAME RESULTS 1 2 T Trinity Western 0 0 0 British Columbia 1 0 1 « FINAL

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Game Recap

MEN’S SOCCER (CANADA WEST)
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2009
NO. 1 TWU SPARTANS (0) AT THE NO. 8 UNIVERSITY OF THE BRITISHCOLUMBIA THUNDERBIRDS (1)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SPARTANS FALL FOR FIRST TIME IN CANADA WEST PLAY

VANCOUVER – The Trinity Western University men’s soccer team has finally lost a game in Canada West conference play. It took 10 games, but tonight the Spartans fell 1-0 to the No. 8 University of British Columbia Thunderbirds at UBC’s Thunderbird Park. The loss drops the Spartans to 6-1-3, while the win moves the Thunderbirds to 7-3-0 and evens the season series at 1-1, with TWU having won 2-1 two weeks ago in Langley, B.C.

“We played poorly in the first half our back line had one of their poorer performances of the year,” commented TWU head coach Pat Rohla. “We really did not play with confidence and did not look like a No. 1 team.”

With the win, the T-Birds improve from second in the conference into a tie with Spartans atop the Canada West standings with four games remaining to play in the regular season.  First place at the end of the regular season hosts the Canada West Final Four.

Tonight's affair was a tightly contested right from the first whistle.  The T-Birds had a slight advantage early on, earning long stretches of possession.

The home side were finally rewarded when Tyson Keam converted in the 32nd minute with a blistering strike from just outside the penalty box that rocketed off the post and in.

The second half saw both teams fighting for possession, with TWU's star striker Nathan Pogue (Seaside, Ore.), who didn't play in the first half, almost even the score in the 60th minute but his low shot from inside the penalty area just missed.

UBC responded to that play with their best chance of the half, as a cross found Jorge Angel-Mira alone at the far post but his 12-yard strike was parried by Spartans keeper Andrew Fink (Burnaby, B.C.) in the 63rd minute.

UBC kept up the momentum with Keam almost adding a second after a great individual run led to a strike that was deflected by a TWU defender before finding the visitors cross-bar.

TWU had one last gasp as a long ball into the UBC box fell to Nathan Square-Briggs (Richmond, B.C.) whose shot was stopped by T-Bird keeper Nikolai Matni and Pogue's effort on the rebound was pushed wide by a diving Jason Gill in the 80th minute.

The win marked UBC's fifth consecutive 1-0 shutout at home to start the season.  Matni made five saves to earn his third clean sheet of the season, while Fink made three stops in the loss.

Both teams are done for the weekend and await the results from the Alberta games versus Calgary and Lethbridge later this weekend, as the Golden Bears are just four points behind the BC schools with two games in hand.  Next weekend UBC and TWU host Alberta and Saskatchewan with that weekend potentially deciding first place in the conference.

Match Notes: UBC outshot TWU 14-4 in total shots and five to three in shots on goal…the Thunderbirds also had the edge in corner kicks at four to one…the Spartans have  lifetime record of 8-7-5 with the Thunderbirds…

-TW-

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