LANGLEY, B.C. – After a three game USA tour the Trinity Western Spartans returned home to earn a 3-0 victory over the Bishop's Gaiters Friday evening at Chase Office Field in Langley, B.C. The victory improves the Spartans to 2-2-2, while the loss drops the Gaiters to 0-1-0.
AS IT HAPPENED
The Spartans dominated the opening 45 outshooting the Gaiters 5-1 with a 7-0 edge in corner kicks. Despite the advantage TWU was unable to find the back of the Bishop's net.
The scoring drought ended immediate in the second half. TWU came out quickly as
Holland Stiel (Okotoks, AB) took a pass from
Anna Dunn (Edmonton, AB) and got the ball past Bishop's keeper Ashley Pitcher in the 46
th minute to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead.
The Spartans got the insurance goal in the 80
th minute with
Charis Wardrope (Maple Ridge, BC) converting a feed from
Charity Field (Burnaby, BC) to make it 2-0 for TWU.
TWU added on in the 85
th minute with
Erin Stewart (Port Coquitlam, BC) getting her second of the preseason and giving Field her second assist of the match.
NOTABLE
• Today's match was the first time the Spartans have matched up against the Bishop's Gaiters, who are coached by former Spartan all-Canadian Paul Ballard.
• The Spartans had a 15-6 edge in total shots and an 8-2 edge in corner kicks
• The Spartans keeper
Hannah Miller (Langley, BC) made two saves to earn the shutout win, while Selena Arima and Ashley Pitcher combined for six saves for the Gaiters.
• The Spartans two losses so far this preseason are 5-0 at Gonzaga and 4-1 at Oregon State.
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Graham Roxburgh
"Good night all around. A chance for two good teams to play lots of players. Even though it is preseason, the season is creeping up on us quickly, so I'm pleased that we tried to keep possession tonight. For a while we possessed and made it really hard to get out – probably needed to generate two or three more good chances off that possession, but I thought we controlled the first half.
"Second half we scored early, that was excellent. As we started putting some different players on the game got scrappy for a little bit. We finished really well, super pleased
Erin Stewart got on the scoresheet tonight, good finish by Charis. We built up and had good chances, we just need to be a little bit better in the final third. Credit to them, they made it hard, they're going to be a good team and they're a growing program. Nice to have Paul Ballard ('06, Port Coquitlam, B.C.) back at Trinity."
UP NEXT
The Spartans will play their final preseason match tomorrow evening when they will host Simon Fraser University. Match time at TWU is set for 7 p.m. TWU opens Canada West conference play next weekend when they will host the Victoria Vikes and the UBC Thunderbirds.
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 13 U SPORTS team championships and 32 Canada West team championships.
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