Shawn Parkes’ late goal lifted the Trinity Western Spartans to a 2-1 victory on Sunday at Abbotsford’s Bateman Park.
The Spartans men’s soccer team was tied 1-1 with the Fraser Valley Cascades when Parkes struck for the winner with less than four minutes remaining.
“Overall, it was a fair result based on the quality of chances that we got,” said Trinity Western coach Pat Rohla.
Trinity Western had lost 3-2 the day before in Victoria to the Vikes, so the three points they earned against Fraser Valley improved them to 5-3-2 and 17 points and fourth place in the Canada West standings with four games remaining.
The top four make the post-season.
The Spartans opened the scoring in the 27th minute when Daniel Lowen took a perfect feed from Brayden Gant and slotted it past Cascades keeper Mark Village.
Fraser Valley came out pressing to start the second half and they were rewarded in the 71st minute when Jordan Tipton headed the ball past Spartans keeper Andrew Kowan.
But Trinity Western, ranked eighth in the country, regained control and got the winner in the 87th minute with Parkes taking a feed from Brayden Volkenant.
Kowan finished with three saves in his first game of the season.
Against Victoria, the Vikes scored twice in a five-minute span late in the contest to break a 1-1 tie.
Cody Strelau cut the lead to 3-2 with an injury time goal, but that was as close as the Spartans got.
Spencer Schmidt opened the scoring for Trinity Western in the 21st minute but Corey Sanford got that goal back 10 minutes later for Victoria.
Craig Gorman and David Adams then struck in the 82nd and 87th minutes, respectively.
The Spartans are at home this weekend, facing the Saskatchewan Huskies (4-4-2, 14 points) on Friday and the Alberta Golden Bears (5-2-3, 18 points) on Saturday. Both matches are at Rogers Park on the TWU campus.
