The Trinity Western Spartans have a ways to go if they hope to qualify for the post-season.
The men’s soccer team suffered a pair of one-sided defeats at the hands of the UBC Thunderbirds as the Canada West rivals contested a home-and-home series.
The Thunderbirds won 5-1 on Friday on the UBC campus and then 6-1 the next night at Rogers Field on the TWU campus.
“There’s nothing to be said after a game like that,” said Spartans coach Pat Rohla.
“People don’t understand their roles and responsibilities or they’re not willing to execute them.
“It’s disappointing for everybody; we’re in a situation where we’re trying to give people opportunities, but they have to be willing to man up and take care of the opportunities.
“In the end, we got taken apart by a very good team.”
In the first game, the Spartans trailed 1-0 at the half but UBC struck for three goals in a six-minute span to blow things open.
Trinity Western’s Mitchell Urzinger broke the shutout bid with a goal on a free kick from 25 yards out in second half stoppage time.
“When players get injured, others have to step into the fray and not be afraid of it,” Rohla said.
“We didn’t execute when we had the chances early and if we could have got one in the first half, it may have been a different game.
“Every chance UBC got, they buried it and that was the difference tonight.”
The Thunderbirds had five different goal scorers, as Niall Cousens, Reynold Stewart, Navid Mashinchi, Paul Clerc and Milad Mehrabi all found the back of the net.
UBC had a 17-5 advantage in shots and 6-1 in shots on goal.
And the first half of Saturday’s game was a continuation of the previous night as the Thunderbirds scored four times in the opening 45 minutes, including three goals in 11 minutes.
Carlos del Aguila made it 4-1 with a goal in the 43rd minute, but UBC scored twice more early in the second half.
The Thunderbirds fired 19 shots at the Spartan goal, with 11 hitting the target. By comparison, Trinity Western had three shots with two being on target.
Stewart scored twice for the visitors, while Clerc, Sean Einarsson, Mehrabi and Harry Lakhan had the others.
The Spartans (1-3-0) are back in action with a pair of road games this weekend, Friday in Victoria versus the Vikes and Sunday in Chilliwack against the UFV (Fraser Valley) Cascades.
