VANCOUVER, B.C. – The Trinity Western Spartans and the UBC Thunderbirds battled to a 2-2 tie in Canada West men's soccer action Friday night at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver. The draw moves the Spartans to 3-3-5, while moving UBC to 3-1-5.

An early opportunity for UBC came through Bradley Richardson five minutes in, but his effort in tight was parried by TWU goalkeeper Sebastian Colyn.

Despite the early chance for the T-Birds, it was the visitors that opened the scoring, as 16 minutes in a teasing ball from the right flank found Spartans rookie Christian Rossi who headed the ball into the top corner for an early 1-0 lead. After some back and forth play, the Spartans doubled their advantage twenty minutes later through Rossi who struck a perfect ball from the left edge of the T-Birds 18-yard box that curled past 'Birds keeper Bennett McKay and into the top corner.

The home side would respond four minutes later as Tristan Nkoghe finished off a nice buildup in depositing a volley into the TWU net off a cross from Christopher Lee. Then, on the stroke of halftime Nkoghe once again was the recipient of a beautiful pass from Mitch Piraux. Piraux whipped a ball in from the left wing right to the feet of Nkoghe who slid it through the legs of Colyn from 14 yards out to tie the game at 2-2.

UBC came out the stronger side to start the second half, as a Chris Lee free kick found 'Birds veteran Mackenzie Cole, but his header was pushed aside by Colyn protecting the TWU goal.

The Spartans lone solid chance of the second frame came off the foot of rookie forward Charles Thchouya Nana, but his firm deflected effort towards goal was caught and held by UBC goalkeeper McKay despite some Spartans being around the Thunderbirds net.
The 'Birds kept the bulk of possession in the second half, and made a couple attacking minded substitutions, but the game finished deadlocked at 2-2.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Mike Shearon
"I'm happy with the effort. Obviously not the result we wanted. We had a few moments where I felt like we turned off and stopped doing the things that we wanted to do. Overall, glad we're heading into tomorrow with some strong play tonight."

NOTABLE

• TWU currently sits tied for second spot in the West division with UBC and TRU. However, the Spartans have played two more matches then their counterparts.
• Spartan keeper Sebastian is now tied for top spot in Canada West with 13 career ties.
• With today's start TWU's Jacob Low is one game away from tying UBCO's Jeevin Kang for most career games played at 72.
• TWU is now 1-14-5 lifetime at Thunderbird Stadium against UBC. Their lone win came on September 16, 2007 when the Spartans prevailed 1-0.
• Spartan keeper Sebastian Colyn made nine saves, while the Thunderbirds Bennett McKay made two saves.

UP NEXT
The Spartans will finish of their Canada West season tomorrow night against the UBC Thunderbirds. Match time at UBC is set for 7:30 p.m. The match can be seen live on Canadwest.tv.

About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men's rugby. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 12 U SPORTS team championships and 29 Canada West team championships.

-TW-