LANGLEY, British Columbia – Trinity Western's Matthew Roxburgh (Surrey, B.C.) scored in the 85th minute to salvage a critical 2-2 draw with Fraser Valley Tuesday at Rogers Field.
The Spartans trailed twice in the game, but both times responded to ensure they would earn a point from a hard-fought mid-week derby.
Roxburgh took a pass from Elijah Adekugbe (Calgary) in the middle of the box and converted with a definitive strike to knot the score late in the second half. Both teams had chances in a frenetic final few minutes, but neither was able to find the go-ahead marker.
Mitchell Urzinger (Langley) also scored for the Spartans (3-3-2) while James Najman and Kree Byrne tallied for UFV (5-3-2), giving the visitors 1-0 and 2-1 leads.
"I thought it was a great battle," said Spartans coach Pat Rohla. "Two teams went at it pretty hard tonight. I don't know if it was a fair result on the tie. I thought on the day, we created a few more opportunities to score and missed two easy ones at the end of the game. But they're a good team. They earn everything they get. They're feisty and they're well-coached. Having said that, I thought we were a little bit unfortunate not to come away with three points tonight."
TWU now sits fifth in the Pacific Division and is one point behind UBC Okanagan with two games in hand.
"We are looking to make sure that we secure a playoff spot," Rohla said. "Coming back like we did showed great heart and great courage from players who don't typically get a ton of minutes. When we talk about team, this is what it takes to push forward and everybody gets counted on."
The Cascades Najman scored the lone goal of the first half when he curled a well-struck ball across the face of the net to the far top corner to make the score 1-0 in the 12th minute.
TWU's Jarvis Ambaka (Maragoli, Kenya) made attempts to see the ball to the net in both the 35th and 38th minutes, with his second offering thumping off the crossbar. Leighton Johnson (Calgary) had a shot near goal in the 40th minute but failed to connect.
Byrne had a wonderful opportunity to double UFV's lead in the 40th minute from 12 yards out, but his shot sailed high.
The second half opened with new energy from the Spartans as Urzinger scored his first goal of the season in the 47th minute, with an assist to Brayden Gant (Maple Ridge, B.C.), to tie the game 1-1.
Spartans goalie Andrew Hicks (Surrey, B.C.), who finished the game with five saves, stopped two close shots from the Cascades in the early minutes of the second as well as one in the 61st minute to keep the game on even terms.
The Spartans nearly took the lead in the 60th minute when Urzinger blasted a shot on net from in tight, but UFV goalie Alex Skrzeta, who made six stops on the night, was equal to the task.
In the 69th minute, the Cascades Byrne put UFV ahead and excited a large lot of visiting supporters at Rogers Field. That goal set the table for a wild final 20 minutes.
The comeback efforts of the Spartans were finally successful when Roxburgh scored with five minutes left to tie the game, with a patient assist from Adekugbe.
The Spartans are back on the field Friday and Saturday when they will host UNBC on back-to-back nights. The Cascades will host Victoria Oct. 23 and UBC Oct. 24 to end their regular season schedule.
Game Notes: The Spartans have just one win in their last six games, going 1-3-2 over that span…UFV's Daniel Davidson and Connor Macmillan were given yellow cards, as was TWU's Kalem Scott (Comox, B.C.).
-TW-