VANCOUVER – Trinity Western lost 3-2 on the road against UBC, dropping a tough decision after holding a second-half lead Sunday afternoon at Thunderbird Stadium.

Rookie Tristan Torresan (North Vancouver, B.C.) and Caleb Jemmott (Calgary) each had a goal and an assist to lead the Spartans offence, but a pair of late UBC goals snatched a win for the home side.

The T-Birds (2-0) carried most of the early play in what was a rematch of the previous two Canada West finals and were rewarded in the 35th minute when Sean Einarsson sent in a seeing eye right-footed curling shot from the left side of the 18-yard box to open the scoring. Einarsson had gathered a cut back pass from Mihai Hodut on the left flank and guided the shot past Sebastian Colyn (Langley, B.C.) in the Spartans net.

Just two minutes later the Spartans responded in style with Jemmott sending in a high cross from the left flank that Torresan calmly took off his chest. With a surprising amount of time and space, Torresan blasted a left-footed rising strike from 16 yards out for his first-ever goal as a Spartan.

Coming out of the break, TWU added to their lead on a 50th-minute corner kick from Torresan that Jemmott found through a maze of bodies, heading it home from four yards out to give the Spartans a 2-1 advantage.

Shortly thereafter, TWU's Colyn stymied the T-Birds on a pair of occasions, stopping blasts from both Mackenzie Cole, in the 53rd minute, and Daniel Kaiser, in the 66th minute, to preserve TWU's lead.

UBC was rewarded just a couple minutes later as Cole connected in the box with a sliding tap in from close range, getting on the end of a turf-burning cross from Jordan Haynes to even the score at 2-2 in the 68th minute.

Ten minutes later the T-Birds pressure paid off yet again with the game0winner courtesy of Ryan Arthur rising above the crowd at the 16-yard line for a nifty flick on goal in minute 79. Arthur was able to get his head on the free kick from Haynes who floated the ball in from 37 yards out, a second straight assist for Haynes on the day.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Mike Shearon
"I was really happy with our team performance today. We worked a lot harder than we did the other night and worked better defensively. I thought we got better from Friday night, which was the goal. Obviously, I feel bad for the group that we didn't hold on for the win, but at the same time, I was really proud of the performance that we put out. UBC is a good team and they kept the ball well. They have a lot of professionals out there and for our young group to go out and play with them, it was good. The bye week comes at a good time and hopefully we'll get a few guys back and be ready to go for our home-opener."

UBC Head Coach Mike Mosher
"It was a good character battle back to get the result. Disappointing we got into the situation we did down 2-1 but I'm happy with the effort coming back. I could sense we were really getting on top in the first half, we scored and then we conceded right away and it was a very preventable goal, just poor defending on our part, just not tracking back. It's always a battle with these guys, always a little bit interesting and credit to them, they've turned over a lot of players and they're still a very difficult team to beat."

NOTABLE
•    TWU hasn't started a season with back-to-back losses in 18 years, when they also dropped games against UBC and Victoria to open the 2001 season.
•    Combining injuries with graduation, the Spartans had only four players in Sunday's starting lineup who also featured as starters in last year's Canada West final.
•    Six first-year Spartans earned playing time Sunday, with Shearon leaning on four rookies in his starting lineup.

UP NEXT
The Spartans have a bye next weekend before opening their home schedule Sept. 6-7, when they host Thompson Rivers and UBC Okanagan. Kickoff for both matches is at 7:15 p.m. at TWU's Chase Office Field.
 
About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 11 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes in the British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL) in men's hockey and as an independent team in men's rugby. The men's and women's hockey programs will begin playing in Canada West and U SPORTS in 2020-21. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 12 U SPORTS team championships and 27 Canada West team championships and two BCIHL championships.

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