By Mark Janzen, Trinity Western University
LANGLEY, B.C. – Trinity Western's Leighton Johnson (Calgary) scored his fourth goal of the season and Jacob Low (Port Moody, B.C.) notched his second of the campaign, but it wasn't enough as UNBC rallied to earn a 2-2 tie with the Spartans Saturday at Chase Office Field.
Low gave TWU (1-1-2) a 2-1 lead in the 58th minute, but the visiting Timberwolves (1-0-3) struck back in the 71st minute, when Owen Stewart tallied his first of the 2017 season to send the teams to a draw for the second straight night. On Friday, UNBC and TWU played to a scoreless tie.
The Timberwolves Brett Bobier opened the scoring in the 31st minute, before Johnson equalized in the 41st minute.
Playing in front of a boisterous home crowd of 585, the Spartans looked the stronger of the two sides early on, but were unable to crack the goalkeeping of UNBC's Tyrone Venhola, who was named the Timberwolves game MVP.
Somewhat against the run of the play, Bobier got to a rebound at the top of the box and sent his shot to the bottom right corner, beating first-year TWU netminder Sebastian Colyn (Langely).
However, 10 minutes later, Johnson got the Spartan Faithful on its feet when he cut across the box and slotted home his offering low and left, past Venhola.
With TWU carrying momentum into the second half, the Spartans went ahead when Low zipped a shot past Venhola, once again to the bottom left corner.
After UNBC was vastly outplayed on Friday night, Saturday's tilt was a different story and when Stewart sent his shot past Colyn with under 20 minutes to play, it secured what was arguably a fair result.
The Spartans pressed in the waning moments, but UNBC hung on to take two points from their road weekend in Langley.
Since their opening-night win over Victoria, TWU has gone three games without a victory, including a loss to UBC and back-to-back ties with UNBC.
UNBC is still unbeaten this year, as they also have a tie and a win against Thompson Rivers.
QUOATABLE
TWU Head Coach Mike Shearon
On the Match
"I'm frustrated that we didn't get the victory, but credit to UNBC because they came out and made adjustments and got the goals that they needed to get back into the game. Both teams worked hard tonight and that's how the game went.
"I thought the game was a little more even than it was yesterday. I thought we did enough to win it, but obviously they took care of their chances and got stuff sorted out.
"In the end, we never thought this season was going to be easy. We never thought things were just going to come to us. So, we'll continue to work hard, fix the things we need to fix and be ready to play next weekend."
NOTABLE
• Elie Gindo was named the Spartans game MVP.
• TWU remains unbeaten against the Timberwolves in six matches at home, with a now 3-0-3 all-time record at Chase Office Field.
• With four goals, Leighton Johnson now leads all goal-scorers in Canada West. Johnson had four goals combined in his first three years with TWU.
• The Spartans Caleb Johnson (Calgary) (13) and UNBC's Josh McAvoy (31'), Tofa Fakunle (70') and Cody Gysbers (87') were given yellow cards.
UP NEXT
The Spartans are back at home next weekend when they host Thompson Rivers Friday and UBC Okanagan Saturday. All Spartans home games are free for TWU students (with a student ID).
-TW-