Trinity Western University’s Seina Kashima scored with a little more than 15 minutes to play, but five minutes later UBC’s Shayla Chorney equalised and that’s how the game ended, as the Spartans and Thunderbirds played to a 1-1 tie Saturday at Chase Office Field.
After a 70-minute stalemate, Kashima broke through in the 73rd minute with her first goal of the season and her first since 2014.
Last year, Kashima had a team-leading seven assists but didn’t score herself. She scored four goals in 2014.
However, in the 78th minute, Chorney buried a rebound to even the scoreline.
Then, in the 81st minute, Kashima weaved into the box and put a shot on target looking for the go-ahead goal, but Maracle made a leaping save.
TWU’s Ally Williamson (a Langley product) made eight saves to earn the draw for the Spartans while Maracle was good on three of the four shots she faced.
The tie puts TWU’s record at 3-0-2 on the season while UBC is now 1-0-4. Both teams also picked up single points in their Friday matches.
“It was a really good game between two competitive teams,” Spartans coach Graham Roxburgh said. “I’m probably a little disappointed that we went ahead and then allowed them to respond so quickly. UBC has some potent weapons and I thought they pushed back quickly. It’s too bad we didn’t absorb that for the next five minutes because I think we would have been settled at that point.
He continued, “But I’m really proud of our team. We’ve been through some adversity and at points it looked like we might break, but we defended quite well. In the end, we scored a fantastic goal and maybe we were unlucky not to score a second. But at the same time, UBC generated enough, so a tie is probably a fair result.”
Kashima opened the scoring when she took a through ball from Nicole Bolder and stepped around charging UBC goalie Maracle before slotting it into the vacated net.
In the 78th minute, Chorney pounced on an in-tight rebound. Jasmine Dhanda sent a cross in from the right side and Williamson got a hand to it, but Chorney was the first one to the loose ball and easily converted.
The first half was a defensive struggle with the best chance coming off the foot of UBC’s Margaret Hadley, who fired a 25th-minute attempt on target from atop the box, but was stopped by a diving Williams.
Five minutes later, TWU’s Isabella Di Trocchio had a crack on goal from 20 yards out, but this time it was Maracle up to the task.
The T-Birds had a prime scoring chance in the 63rd minute, when Dhanda found a loose ball and raced into the area untouched, but her shot zipped low just wide of the right post.
The Spartans are back on the pitch next weekend when they travel to play Thompson Rivers Saturday (Sept. 24) and UBC Okanagan Sunday (Sept. 25).
The T-Birds are also on the road next weekend, playing UBC Sept. 23 and Alberta Sept. 25.
Game Notes: The Spartans Brooklyn Tidder and Elizabeth Hicks was each shown yellow cards. TWU is now unbeaten in 18 regular season games dating back to the start of the 2015 season.