Soccer season kicks off

Posted by admin on Sep 23, 2008 in Sports | 1 comment

It has been a busy two weeks for the Spartan men and women as the soccer season began with a bang.

On Friday, Sept. 5, the Spartan men opened against the University of Lethbridge to a packed Spartan field. The Faithful were not disappointed as Dan Lowen scored twice in the first ten minutes, followed two minutes later by a powerful shot off the crossbar and in by Nathan Square-Briggs. Lethbridge pulled it together and put one in the netting later in the first half, but the damage was done. The Spartan domination in the first half proved the difference as the final 45 minutes were spent mostly in midfield until Spartan forward David Rowse finalized the victory, 4-1, and sent the Lethbridge bus driver to the parking lot to warm up the bus.

However, the Spartan team of Friday was not the Spartan team of Saturday. Just as the night before, the home side struck first six minutes into the game when Patrick Kelly was set up beautifully to go in one on one against the keeper. Unfortunately, the game quickly turned as the visiting University of Calgary Dinos held the ball in Spartan territory for most of the game. Luckily, Spartan keeper Andrew Kowan was not rusty from the almost zero action from the night before; save after glorious save preserved the lead that could have changed hands very easily with the run of play, and the Spartans managed to pull off a 1-0 win.

“Canada West Men’s soccer has a reputation of being the tightest league in CIS sport, so starting out 2-0 in league play is absolutely fantastic,” said Coach Alan Alderson. “Sometimes we will need to pick up our three points in a really ugly fashion and that is what we did,” he added, referencing the game play in night two.

The Spartans then entered the pitch again last Thursday, Sept. 11 against their Canada West rivals, the UBC Thunderbirds. Sadly, luck was not on the home side as UBC scored two goals in the first half and coasted for the win. The game was in addition dampened by the exit of Trinity Western University captain Goran Vitic when a seemingly harmless tackle by a UBC player sent him limping off the pitch with the help of Spartan trainers. The disappointment continued with Saturday’s game against UVIC as our men in blue and gold lost 3-0, ending the weekend without a goal.

Saturday, Sept. 6 was also the season opener for TWU’s women as they played the UFV Cascades in Abbotsford. Although the Spartans out-shot the home team almost 2 to 1, a 0-0 draw was the final result. The same outcome followed at the home opener against UBC as the Spartans grabbed a single point in a 1-1 draw thanks to a beautiful goal by rookie Spartan Nikki Wright. Wright was also the hero with two goals leading the home side to a 2-1 victory over UVIC Finally, on Saturday, Sept. 13 at TWU.

With still a long way to go to the Canada West finals, Alderson remarked that the Spartans “will get better and better as the season progresses and we are definitely excited for what this team should be capable of accomplishing this fall.”