LANGLEY, British Columbia – With three goals from three different scorers and a clean sheet from goalkeeper Andrew Fink, his third of the year, the Trinity Western men’s soccer team knocked off the Lethbridge Pronghorns 3-0 at Rogers Park Saturday night.
The Spartans, coming off a devastating 1-1 tie against Calgary in which the Dinos scored in stoppage time, were the better of the sides from the first whistle to the final whistle as they extended their unbeaten streak to six games and, with the win, moved into second place in Canada West.
Trinity Western’s Spencer Schmidt opened the scoring for the second straight night with his fourth goal of the season in the 7th minute. Then, in the 39th minute the Spartans Goran Vitic doubled their lead with a nice finish on a nifty passing play. And then, in second half stoppage time, Garrett Peters iced the win as he scored his third goal of the campaign.
“We had timely goals and a little bit more composure on the ball tonight,” said Spartans coach Pat Rohla. “I thought we were pretty good but there’s still a lot to work on. We changed our formation a bit and I thought Brayden Gant and Jordan Whitehead in the middle of the park were fantastic. It allowed Ioannis [Tsoulouhas] and Spencer [Schmidt] to show and keep balls and it allowed the outside of the pitch to open up for us.
“We did a lot of things right. I still think we could have had a bit more finish but that’s just me trying to push our guys."
The win moves the Spartans record to 4-1-2 and has them just one point behind conference-leading UBC, while the loss drops the Pronghorns record to 1-7-0.
Trinity Western opened the game oozing with energy as they immediately worked the ball into Lethbridge’s zone and basically kept it there until Schmidt buried the first goal of the game. The Spartans striker capitalized on a Lethbridge turnover as he found a loose ball at the top of the 18-yard box, walked in alone on Pronghorns goalie Colin Pattison and ripped a no-doubter past the fifth-year keeper.
Despite the early goal, the Pronghorns seemed undiscouraged as they responded by generating a couple of quality opportunities of their own shortly thereafter. In the 14th minute, Lethbridge’s Chris Rushworth hit a well-timed strike from just outside the box low and hard that forced Fink to scramble to his left to make what was likely his toughest top of the night. Five minutes later, Dario Pasquotti had an open look from the top of the box but his shot sailed just over the crossbar.
With just the one-goal advantage, the Spartans continued to press for more goals and were rewarded with Vitic’s 39th minute strike. Tsoulouhas started the play when he sent a ball to first-year midfielder Brayden Gant who then quickly fired it inside the area to an awaiting Vitic who whipped it into the bottom right corner for his first of the season, giving TWU a 2-0 lead going into the break.
In the second half, the Spartans continued to maintain control of the match and, even more so than the opening half, smothered the Pronghorns offence.
Lethbridge, who managed four shots on target in the first half didn’t once challenge Fink in the second half.
While Lethbridge was skunked in terms of shots on goal in the second 45 minutes, the Spartans weren’t much better as they only hit the target twice in the second half. Lethbridge goalie Pattison, who had to leave with an ankle injury in the 65th minute and was replace by Tyler Boast, made one save and the other Spartans shot found the back of the net when Garrett Peters notched his third of the season in stoppage time.
Gant, with his second assist of the night, sent Peters streaking down the right side and the Spartans speedy striker beat Matt Medoruma to the outside and chipped it past Boast.
The Spartans next game sees them travel to UBC for a match Oct. 7 against the Thunderbirds at 7:15 p.m. When they met earlier this year, the Thunderbirds and Spartanas played to a 1-1 draw at Rogers Park.
The Pronghorns have the next week off as they don’t play until Oct. 15 when they will host Saskatchewan at 2:00 p.m. local time.
Game Notes: The Spartans outshot Lethbridge, 14-13 and had an 8-4 advantage in shots on goal…TWU had nine corners to Lethbridge’s three…the Pronghorns Morgan Brownjohn (59’) and Rushworth (78’) were each shown yellow cards.
-TW-
SOURCE: TWU Sports Information
