The Trinity Western Spartans soccer teams went 1-1 against their American foes last weekend to wrap up the spring season.
The men’s team erased a 1-0 deficit to edge Seattle Pacific 2-1 on Saturday afternoon at TWU’s Chase Office Field while the women’s team fell 3-1 to Washington State at Yorkson Creek Middle School.
After the Falcons opened the scoring inside the first three minutes, Elijah Adekugbe equalised late in the first half before Elie Gindo put the Spartans ahead midway through the second half. TWU held off a 10-man SPU side the rest of the way.
The Falcons were down a player after seeing a red card in the first half.
“I thought it was a good performance,” said Spartans coach Mike Shearon. “I was disappointed with giving up a goal early on against the run of play, but at the same time, we talked a lot this week about being resilient and fighting through things and we saw that today.”
Goalkeeper James Hielema earned the win for TWU, as the Spartans finished their spring season with a 4-2 record, which included taking top spot at the annual Keg Cup in Victoria.
“Overall the spring season has been great,” Shearon said.
“It’s given me the chance to see a number of our players, with some of them out of position, and also give some of our younger guys some significant minutes. I thought the results we had in the spring were good results and I think we’ve learned a lot about ourselves, both as individuals and as a team.”
We got the goal back right before half and we talked about continuing to generate chances and it was nice to see Elie get the winner.”
The women’s team was not as fortunate as they tried to rally from a 2-0 deficit.
After the Cougars took a 2-0 lead early in the second half, TWU’s Brooklyn Tidder struck back when she buried a header off of a well-struck corner.
TWU’s Rachel Hutchinson nearly found the equaliser but after a solo effort, her offering hit the crossbar.
The Cougars reestablished their lead late in the game, taking advantage of an undetected collision with TWU goalkeeper Rachel Sydor and tucking the ball into an open net.
“It’s always good to test yourself against an opponent at the Pac-12 level,” said Spartans coach Graham Roxburgh.
“They are very athletic and they have technical ability all over the park. I thought after the first 15 minutes of weathering their storm, we started to play a bit and grew in confidence.
“We were a bit unlucky on a few clear-cut chances. If we would have finished one of our chances in the first half and got back on equal terms, I think it would have been justified.
“Having said that, Washington State showed their quality and when we made a mistake, they punished us. I’m really pleased that we didn’t fold our tent and that we came back in the game and scored a great goal. Rachel Hutchinson’s movement tonight and her attacking threat was superb and she was unlucky not to be rewarded. I’m grateful that we can play that level of a game and show that we can compete.”