After playing their first two home games of the PACWEST (Pacific Western Athletic Association) soccer season, the Kwantlen Eagles are still looking for their first victory.
For the second consecutive week, both the men’s and women’s teams from Kwantlen Polytechnic University earned a loss and a tie from last weekend’s action at Newton Athletic Park.
The women played to a scoreless tie Saturday against the UBC-Okanagan Heat, then fell 2-1 to the Thompson Rivers University (TRU) Wolfpack on Sunday.
The men also tied the Heat 0-0 Saturday, and were shutout 2-0 by Thompson Rivers Sunday.
Kevin Taheri was a standout in goal for Kwantlen Saturday, making several outstanding saves late in the game to keep the game scoreless. The Eagles also had their chance to score, but came up empty.
“Today we saw two different halves and performances by our Kwantlen team,” said head coach Srdjan Djekanovic. “We played some excellent soccer in the later part of the match and we were very unlucky not to walk away with a win.”
It was a similar story Sunday, with the Eagles generating offensive chances only to fail to score. The Wolfpack got one early in the game and another in the last 10 minutes for the win.
“Our young Kwantlen team took on a very physical TRU team today and except for a couple of errors which unfortunately cost us goals on the day, we were a team that carried the play,” said Djekanovic. “If we continue improving and working as hard as we have, our time is coming and we will be in a (strong) position come the end of the season.”
Surrey’s Sukhleen Gill was credited with the shutout in the scoreless tie in Saturday’s women’s game.
The Eagles had to play from behind in Sunday’s contest, falling behind 2-0 in the first half hour.
Shanay Sangha and Kathleen Gratz had excellent chances to score Kwantlen’s first goal of the weekend, but the Eagles had to wait until Norma Sheane tallied to pull to within one.
The loss dropped Kwantlen’s record to 0-2-2 (won-tied-loss), the same record as the men.
Both teams are on the road next weekend, playing in Nanaimo against the Vancouver Island University Mariners on Saturday, then taking on the Capilano University Blue Sunday in North Vancouver.
