By Cameron Doherty, Vikes Communications

VICTORIA— After mother nature refused to co-operate, a game that was originally scheduled to be played in Prince George was finally completed in Victoria on October 16. The UNBC Timberwolves defeated the UVic Vikes by a score of 5-2 in the contest.

The game in Prince George was cancelled due to snow, unfortunately not before the Vikes had already flown north. With the bad weather sticking around to cancel both flights and ferries, neither the Vikes nor the Timberwolves had their full team in Victoria until the morning of the match.

After the game, Vikes head coach Bruce Wilson was adamant that the odyssey of travel his team undertook was not the reason the Vikes lost.

"It's the same for both teams. It was a long couple of days no question about it but that wasn't the reason for our result that's for sure," said Wilson.

Playing a sport that stretches into the late fall can be difficult in northern Canada, experiencing those difficulties is something that Timberwolves head coach Steve Simonson thinks helped his squad in the game.

"It was the longest pre-game in history. It was tough on both teams, the toll on the players before-hand was difficult," said Simonson.

"Playing in the north we have our fair share of problems with the weather so we've had to overcome a lot already, so that definitely helped us."

Paulo Dait and Isaac Koch scored the Vikes goals. Francesco Bartolillo scored a hat-trick with Owen Stewart and Tofa Fakunle adding the other goals for the Timberwolves.

It was an explosive start to the game, with three goals being scored in the opening 25 minutes.

Bartolillo got UNBC on the board first after he received a great through ball from Fakunle and finished the play off nicely.

The Vikes levelled the score just four minutes later from the penalty spot.

Persistent Vikes pressure forced a UNBC defender to haul his man down in the penalty box. Dait stepped up and scored his fifth goal of the year.

The Timberwolves took back the lead before half time after Bartolillo scored his second of the game in a wild goalmouth scramble.

"The two goals we gave away in the first half were bad, really bad. That was poor defending on our part. We are a team that's not going to score a lot of goals and when you give away cheap goals like we did in the first half it makes it very difficult," said Wilson.

UNBC increased their lead and took control of the game just two minutes into the second half. Fakunle recorded his second assist of the night when he chipped the ball over the Vikes defence to a wide-open Stewart.

In the 60th minute any doubt as to which team would win the game was erased.

Vikes goalkeeper Noah Pawlowski was given a straight red card after he was forced to pull down a UNBC attacker in the 18-yard box.

With the Timberwolves successfully converting on the penalty kick and the Vikes down to ten men for the remainder of the game, the writing was on the wall.

Koch would score a consolation goal for the Vikes before Bartolillo finished off  his excellent night with his third goal of the game.

These two teams will be back in action tomorrow afternoon. The game will be at 3:00 p.m. at Centennial Stadium.

SCORING                          1     2     FINAL

Victoria (3-9-1)               1     1      2

UNBC (4-8-1)                   2     3      5

MVPS

Victoria: #10 Michael Baart  

UNBC: #8 Francesco Bartolillo