It’s crunch time for Timberwolves

When is a tie like a victory?

When it comes at the expense of the UBC Thunderbirds.

Just ask the UNBC Timberwolves. They came within nine minutes of beating one of the best men’s university soccer teams in Canada last Friday in Vancouver.

Francesco Bartolillo put the T-wolves up 1-0 in the 38th minute and that lead lasted until the 81st minute when UBC’s Victory Shumbusho scored off a corner kick to keep the T-birds unbeaten.

UNBC suffered the consequences of frustrating a league powerhouse in the rematch Sunday, losing to UBC 7-0. But the T-wolves made their point and came back to Prince George with four more points in the standings, three of which were gained in a comefrom-behind 2-1 win Thursday in Victoria.

“That’s a very good UBC side, one of the best I’ve seen in my five years here,” said Bartolillo. “Their record kind of stands by itself, they’re undefeated and that 1-1 draw was very big for us. We were nine minutes away from three points and our tactics were spot-on for the game, Steve (head coach Simonson) set us up brilliantly and we knew what we had to do and we defended well. We’re definitely happy to get that one point.”

Consequently, the T-wolves are off to their best start in seven years of playing in the Canadian university ranks. Owners of a 4-2-3 fourth-place record, they’ll head to Kamloops for a two-game test against the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack Saturday and Sunday.

“It’s not very often you tie UBC and you’re disappointed, because you’re that close to a win,” said Simonson. “At UVic we showed great resilience to come back and win that and at UBC we played a great defensive game and created a couple chances as well and got the point we needed.

“Sunday was the perfect storm of everything that could go wrong for us and right for them in the first half (UBC led 6-0 after 45 minutes), we were just shell-shocked. They came to prove a point and we were just brain-dead, probably a combination of fatigue, with three games in four days, but we’re not going to write it all off to that.

“Four of our nine games were against UBC and Trinity Western, traditionally the top teams, and we’ve got two losses. We’ve been very adaptable, something we’ve not been able to do in the past. We can change a few players, we can change tactics and change our style and now we’ve proven we can come from behind or we can hold on to stuff. There’s a collectiveness right now that’s going to give us a lot of opportunity moving forward.”

Bartolillo, 23, one of three fifth-year T-wolves, has been supplying the leadership expected of him on and off the field. He leads UNBC in goals (five), assists (three) and points (eight) and three weeks ago he became the all-time career leader in goals when he broke Tofa Fakunle’s former record of 12.

“The program has grown tremendously since my first year, a time when we would go into games hoping for the best but knowing there were some tough times ahead,” said Bartolillo. “We’re at a point now where we feel we can go in and compete with any team in Western Canada. Our strength with the team we have now is our cohesiveness and that’s kind of what’s enabled us to come back from deficits in our games, something we’ve struggled with in the past.”

The T-wolves, unquestionably, have more depth than last year’s team, which made the playoffs for the first time in UNBC history. Rookie midfielders Anthony Stewart (who had two assists in Victoria) and Abou Cisse have been major contributors in limited playing time coming off the bench. The emergence of first-year striker Michael Henman and contributions from third-year midfielders Owen Stewart and Pierre Barrafranca have given Simonson options he never had in his previous two seasons at the helm.

Stewart, a 19-year-old Prince George youth soccer product who grew up watching the T-wolves wallow most often near the bottom of the standings, is proud to be part of a team that’s setting the bar high as one of the better teams in Canada West.

“The year’s going well, we just have to keep doing what we’re doing and the wins will continue to come,” said Stewart, who has two goals and one assist in nine games. “We have the possibility to host a playoff game, which would be wild. That’s definitely the goal, to not only make the playoffs but to get the win in the playoffs. To be that confident team and know you’re the favourite, almost, is exciting. I don’t think that’s ever happened and we’ll just keep proving people wrong.”

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The WolfPack (2-6-2) is fighting to return to the Canada West playoffs, having won bronze at nationals last year and the T-wolves expect a physical battle, knowing they can’t afford to let either game slip away, knowing they are in contention to finish as high as second in the Pacific Division with just six games left.

UBC (8-0-2) ranks first in the Pacific Division, followed by the Fraser Valley Cascades (6-2-1) and third-place Trinity Western Spartans (5-1-4). A secondplace finish would guarantee UNBC a first-round playoff bye and a home playoff date at Masich Place Stadium. The T-wolves host UBC Okanagan, Oct. 13-14, then end the regular season on the road in Abbotsford against Fraser Valley, Oct. 19-20.

“They’re all massive games,” said Simonson. “The two Interior teams (TRU and UBCO) are the ones that are going to be chasing us and they’re towards the bottom not because they’re poor but because they haven’t got the results they want. So, if we can take a game from each of them it pretty much eliminates them from catching us and then it’s just UVic we have to stay above, and if we win a bunch of games we’re going to be shooting higher in the table.”

Right back Josh McAvoy likely won’t play this weekend. He’s missed four games with a foot injury. Midfielder Matt Jubinville (back injury) is still not 100 per cent but could see action in Kamloops. McAvoy, Barrafranca, Henman, Jonah Smith and Conrad Rowlands have two yellow cards this season and will try to avoid a third which carries a mandatory one-game suspension. The T-wolves, with 13 yellow cards, rank as the third-most disciplined team in Canada West, an abrupt turnaround from seasons past.

The UNBC women host the Grant MacEwan Griffins at Masich Friday and Saturday nights.