LANGLEY, British Columbia – The Trinity Western Spartans dropped a 2-1 decision to the Victoria Vikes in a hard-luck match to conclude the 2023 conference schedule Saturday night at Chase Office Field in Langley, B.C. The Spartans, who had two goals called back, see their final conference record drop to 6-4-5, while the Vikes improve to 10-4-2 on the season.

Third-year keeper Yeshua Silwamba (Maple Ridge, B.C.) made six saves in the Spartans' loss, while Victoria's Callum Weir and Jared Perras made one save to earn the win.

Victoria's Evan Larson and Jag Zaharia recorded the goals for the Vikes, while TWU was credited with an own goal for their lone marker.
 
AS IT HAPPENED
Victoria's Evan Larson opened the scoring in the 34^th minute. Vikes midfielder Matthew Pearse sent a nice heal pass forward to Larson, who went past the Spartan defender to go in alone on the TWU net, where he sent the ball into the lower left corner of the Spartans' net.
 
The Spartans got the equalizer in the 53^rd minute. TWU third-year defender Mikey Dale (Coquitlam, B.C.) took the ball up the left side of the pitch where he sent a cross to the far post. Spartan third-year forward Zander Roxburgh (Langley, B.C.) one-timed the ball that went off of a UVIC defender and into the back of the Vikes net to tie the match at 1-1.
 
The Vikes regained the lead in the 79^th minute off of a set piece. From the far right side, Victoria's Javier Sagaste sent a high cross towards the far post. The Vikes Zaharia went high to head the ball back to the near post and put Victoria up 2-1 with a game winning goal.
 
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Mike Shearon
"Obviously not happy with the result. It's difficult when you have a group of guys who work so hard, with some guys getting their first-ever Canada Wes minutes, to go out there and work and have a few goals called back from an offside decision. It's tough on those guys"
 
"But I'm super proud of the team and super proud of the effort that they all put in today. Whether it was Sam Northcott (Cobourg, Ont.) playing 90 minutes today and doing a great job. Or the other guys who got some of their first minutes, or guys who don't get a ton of minutes during the season and they played 90 minutes. They all put a shift in and they all worked hard and they all contributed to try and get us a result tonight. Unfortunately, it didn't go our way, but credit to our guys and their work and all that they tried to do against a good UVIC team that I thought still had a number of their players still in it."
 
"Now we will regroup and get ready for next Friday when we play Alberta and look to win a playoff game."
 
NOTABLE

• Victoria outshot TWU 19-3 in total shots and 8-2 in shots on target.
• The Vikes finished with a 4-1 edge in corner kicks.
• The Spartans are 21-24-5 lifetime against the Vikes.
• In their last meeting on September 8, the Spartans tied the Vikes 1-1 in Victoria.
• Trinity Western had two goals called back, one in each half, on apparent off-side plays.
• The Spartans and the Vikes had each solidified their play-off position prior to tonight's contest.

UP NEXT
The Spartans will open the Canada West postseason against the Alberta Golden Bears. The game will be played at UBC with the winner advancing to play the winner of UBC and the fourth-place Prairie team. All matches can be seen live on Canada West 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 14 U SPORTS team championships and 34 Canada West team championships.
 
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