Langley, BC…The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades men’s soccer team lost a heart breaker tonight to the TWU Spartans, 1-0, at Rogers Field, in Langley, BC. The Cascades Canada West regular season record falls to 3-4-4 for 13 points, they remain four points behind the University of Victoria Vikes, for the third and final Pacific Division playoff spot, as the Vikes lost to the UBC Thunderbirds, 2-1 tonight. There are three matches remaining in the regular season, UFV has to play close to perfect soccer the rest of the way and hope for some help from their opponents to earn a post season berth.
The Cascades played one of their strongest matches in recent memory tonight. They controlled a good part of the match and especially the midfield play. In the first half UFV peppered the Spartans goalkeeper Evan Lowther, Surrey, BC with shots but could not get one passed him. Both Craig Robinson, Chilliwack, BC and Cole Almond, Maple Ridge, BC both had great chances and hit either the cross bar or pipes. “We were unlucky in the first half,” commented UFV head coach Alan Errington. “We had our chances but could not finish.” The Cascades recorded 12 shots on goal in the first half.
Veteran Mark Village, Abbotsford, BC was brillant in the Cascades net. Village made several saves on the Spartans’ Jarvis Ambaka, Maragoli, Kenya who has been a Cascade killer the past two games. The match was scoreless at the half.
In the second half, UFV continued to pressure the Spartans, but midway through the half, TWU started to control the midfield and twice Village had to keep the match scoreless on great saves off Spartan forwards. The game’s lone goal would be scored in the 73rd minute of play when TWU was awarded a free kick outside the Cascades box, for a foul by a Cascade defender on a TWU forward. Village stopped the shot but the ball crossed the touch line for a corner kick. The Spartans forward missed the initial shot but a bad clearing by the Cascades would put the ball on Ambaka’s foot and he made no mistake in scoring is 7th goal of the season, third against UFV.
Lowther and the Spartan defense did what they needed to do to hold onto their 8th conference victory. UFV recorded 24 shots for the third straight game. “It is fustrating when the guys play so well but just can not get the equalizer late in the game,” said Errington. The Cascades Ravi Singh, Abbottsford, BC was the “player of the match.” Singh played a very aggressive game on the Cascades backline. In fact the entire match was very chippy as the referee handed out seven yellow cards, a typical very competitive game between two local rivals.
UFV goes to UBC tomorrow night in need of a positive result to stay in the post season hunt.
UFV 0 0 = 0 (3-4-4)
TWU 0 1 = 1 (8-1-2)
Scoring
First Half:
No Scoring
Second Half:
73:03 J Ambaka
Goalkeepers:
UFV: M Village 6 saves/ E Lowther 10 saves/shutout
Shots on Goal:
UFV: 24/ TWU: 10
Corner Kicks:
UFV: 4/ TWU: 4
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