By Mark Janzen, Trinity Western University

LANGLEY, B.C. – Trinity Western and UNBC played to a scoreless draw in the Spartans home-opener Friday at Chase Office Field.

Despite the Spartans (1-1-1) holding much of the possession and earning the majority of the key chances, the Timberwolves (1-0-2) held them off the scoreboard, with each team settling for a point.

First-year TWU goalie Sebastian Colyn (Langley) was largely untested, but in the waning stages of the match, he came up with a point-blank save in the 85th minute on UNBC's Cheona Edzerza to preserve the clean sheet. Colyn, who was forced to make just two saves all night, earned his first ever shutout with the Spartans. He has allowed just two goals in his first three Canada West starts.

The Spartans best chance of the evening came in the 26th minute, when Cody Fransen (Lynden, Wash.) scooped up a loose ball in midfield and had a brief breakaway, before sending his shot wide and to the left of UNBC fifth-year goalkeeper Tyrone Venhola.

Despite the Spartans sending several free kicks into the UNBC box late in the second half, nothing came about and the Timberwolves escaped with the draw.

Venhola finished with three saves.

The Spartans had a 17-6 edge in shots and an 8-3 advantage in corner kicks.

QUOATABLE
TWU Head Coach Mike Shearon
On the Match
"We did everything but score tonight. We talked about all the different things that we wanted to do today. We worked hard and we shut them down in their possession. We got to the spots that we needed to get to create chances, but we just didn't put enough on target tonight. When you don't do that, you're not going to win games. I'm split in how I feel because in every other aspect except the scoring aspect, we were fantastic. At the same time, I'm frustrated because we played well and didn't score.

On Sebastian Colyn
"The kid doesn't have to do anything almost the whole game and then makes some fantastic saves and came up big at the end. He did everything that we've talked about. He distributed well and made a huge save and did the things that he was supposed to do. It's a shame that on a night when he gets a shutout, we don't win the¬¬ game."

NOTABLE
• Brett Bobier was UNBC's game MVP, while TWU's Colyn was the Spartans nod for MVP.
• TWU is now 3-0-2 all-time against the Timberwolves at Chase Office Field.
• Leighton Johnson, who was the Canada West Men's First Star of the Week after scoring three goals last week, had three shots.
• The Spartans Domenic Poletto (Calgary) (75') and UNBC's Conrad Rowlands (83') each were shown yellow cards.

UP NEXT
The Spartans and Timberwolves play the back half of their two-game weekend series Saturday at Chase Office Field at 7:15 p.m.

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