A pair of 1-0 victories improved the Trinity Western Spartans to 4-0-0 on the Canada West season and has the men’s soccer team ranked eighth in the CIS.
The Spartans defeated the UBC Okanagan Heat on Friday and the Thompson Rivers WolfPack on Saturday at Chase Office Field on the TWU campus.
And both nights, the winning goal came relatively late as Mitchell Urzinger struck in the 83rd minute the first game while Leighton Johnson scored the winner in minute 83 the next.
“I’m happy with the result, but I think I’ve aged 20 years in the last two nights,” said Spartans coach Mike Shearon.
“I don’t know why we keep waiting until the end, but in some ways I’m happy that we keep showing this winning mentality and going out there and getting the games.”
“Mike (Shearon) calmed us down at halftime and we sorted a few things out and we came out with more energy in the second half,” said Spartans defender Vaggeli Boucas.
“We worked for each other and worked for one another, the chances slowly came and then we finally put one in. Leighton scored a great goal and then we got the victory.”
“I thought we were by far the better team in the first 20 minutes…but we didn’t put our chances away and it almost came back to bite us,” Shearon said.
“I thought the middle 20 minutes was probably one of the worst sections of game we’ve had all year. At halftime we made a few changes and the guys continued to believe in one another and continued to fight for one another.”
Andrew Hicks picked up the clean sheets both nights and was named the Canada West second star of the week for his efforts. He made two saves against the Heat and four saves against the WolfPack.
The Spartans hit the road for a pair of games, tonight (Friday) at UBC and tomorrow in Victoria.
