Historic win for Timberwolves
UNBC 1 UBC 0. That’s the story. After five years of trying to keep pace with the kingpins of university men’s soccer, the UNBC Timberwolves did even better than that Friday afternoon on the natural turf at North Cariboo Field. After losing all 10 head-to-head encounters with the Thunderbirds dating back to 2012, the year they joined the Canada West Conference, the T-wolves finally got rid of the goose egg.
Stuart Rowlands picked up a lead pass from teammate Brett Bobier and outran a determined check attempt from UBC defender Connor Guiherme, then had the patience to put a chip shot in over the head of goalie Chad Bush.
“Brett played it through to me, a perfect ball, the defender got a little touch on it but it came right to me and I saw the goalie out and just hit it,” said Rowlands.
“I usually just hit it as hard as I can but this time I actually had look up and saw him out and gave it a little chip.”
That goal, 41 minutes into the game, was all the offence UNBC required to pull off the biggest upset in the team’s U Sports/CIS history.
After 10 losses to a T-birds program that has produced 13 national champions, finally it was a time to celebrate for UNBC.
“We came out here with nothing to lose, we’re underdogs at the moment but we came out here and battled hard,” said Rowlands, a second-year forward from Chilliwack who, at 25, is UNBCs oldest player. “The real heroes are the guys in the back. We only scored one, and in the back there, they absolutely shut the door on them.”
T-wolves head coach Steve Simonson has seen the progression of his team from also-rans two seasons ago when he took over, to a team that can run on even terms with just about any opponent. Friday’s result, which dropped UBC’s Pacific Division-leading record to 5-2-1, will likely send shockwaves around the league but the secret is out now on UNBC. The win moved the T-wolves (4-4-3) into fourth place and a playoff position.
“Prior to today it was 10-0 for them, it’s great,” said Simonson.
“We’re at that weird state where we can still be an underdog but we know that we can play with any team and lose to any team. Today was our day. We scored one and probably could have scored a couple and we had to defend very well at the end.
“Tyrone (Venhola) always comes up with big saves for us and he did that again today. We had a real solid effort defensively. These boys have worked incredibly hard to get good enough to win the game and the credit’s all to them.”
The goal came a few minutes after Venhola made his best save of the game, flicking out his foot to deny Guiherme’s low shot from point-blank range.
At the opposite end of the field, Francesco Bartolilio blasted a shot that hit the corner of the cage where crossbar meets goalpost, right after Gordon Hall’s header just missed the net, and Cody Gyspers came within a few inches with his long shot just before Rowlands connected.
UBC had its best chances late in the first half and late in the game. In injury time, Kristian Yli-Heitanen had an open look but rolled a low ball just beyond the post as Venhola dove to the ground. The fifth-year goalie from Abbotsford was sharp all game, making 17 saves for his third shutout of the season. Each team had seven shots on goal in the first half. The T-wolves were more conservative in the second half while protecting the lead and UBC came on strong, outshooting them 10-3. He got help from the goalpost 60 minutes in after a shot from Mihai Hodut.
As good as Venhola was, he had a total team defensive effort backing him up. It seemed whenever a T-bird had the ball he was swarmed by two or three yellow jerseys. The deep defenders – Bobier, Hall, Gysbers, Dan Goodey, Conrad Rowlands – kept the pressure on and forced UBC out of its comfort zone.
“This is amazing, it shows the progress of our program, how we’re able to compete with teams like UBC,” said Hall. (Referring to Rowlands’ goal) he practices that all the time on FIFA ‘18, so it paid off in the game.”
The clock could not tick down fast enough for the small crowd of T-wolves supporters and Venhola took away the final threat, leaping high to catch the ball through a crowd congregating in his crease, finishing with a long boot the ball downfield for the final seconds.
“They’re a such a talented team and such a good program for as long as I can remember and we’ve been able to close that gap year after year and to finally see that gap fully closed today and be rewarded for all the hard work is something special,” said Bartolilio, 22, a fifth-year midfielder.
“It’s a great confidence-booster. We’ve dropped some points along the way that we should have got so this definitely makes up for that. That being said, it’s just one game so we’ve got to keep going after this (in the rematch today) and try to get more.”
The same teams meet again today at 1:15 p.m. at North Cariboo.
The T-wolves will be without Hall, their best defender. He picked up his third yellow card of the season 10 minutes into Friday’s game and will serve a onegame suspension as a result.
T-birds head coach Mike Mosher says he wasn’t stunned to see his team beaten by the T-wolves, obvi- ously the most improved team in the division. He warned his players before the game not to take them lightly.
“This team has been improving vastly, year by year by year, and they’re well-coached and we tried to emphasize that to our team,” Mosher said. “What happened last year or five years ago, it’s all in the past, it’s about what’s happening today and tomorrow and this season.
“We had more than enough time (after the goal) to recover and get something from it but we didn’t. You give any team a goal and it gives them something to really dig into the trenches and that’s what they did in the second half and credit to them. They’re a cohesive group and it shows and that’s what we’re asking of our guys now.”
Mosher plans to utilize his striker Victory Shumbusho a lot more today. The freshman forward, who scored the only goal in 1-0 triumph two weeks ago over Calgary and had three goals the following day in UBC’s 5-0 win last Saturday over MacEwan was picked as the Canada West first star of the week and leads the conference with six goals. In Friday’s game he remained on the sidelines until the 62nd minute.
Friday night in women’s soccer action Victoria, the Victoria Vikes (6-1-1) got two goals from Kiara Kilbey and a single from Emily Lieuwen, while Puck Louwes made three saves to preserve a 3-0 victory over the UNBC Timberwolves.
UNBC (2-5-0) plays UBC (6-1-0) Sunday at 2 p.m. in Vancouver.
Today was our day. We scored one and probably could have scored a couple and we had to defend very well at the end. — Steve Simonson, Timberwolves coach