Saturday night at Masich Place Stadium in Prince George the UNBC Timberwolves men’s soccer program wrapped up their double-header weekend with a hard-fought 1-1 draw with the UBC Okanagan Heat. Luke Graham scored his first ever Canada West goal in the 65th minute, drawing the TWolves even with the Heat at 1-1. Graham’s thrilling reverse-header strike came 10 minutes after Rory Clements had opened the scoring for the Heat off a rebound in close. The energy from the TWolves was evident all night and Saturday’s home effort leaves plenty of good for them to build on with two more home games on the docket for next weekend.
Three minutes into the match the TWolves nearly found paydirt when Connor Lewis centered a perfect ball to Isaac Tate inside the penalty area. Tate took two steps and got all of his shot, but it sailed just wide to the left of goalkeeper Ronan Woodroffe’s net.
Steve Simonson’s squad kept the pedal down, forcing two corner kicks in the next four minutes of play.
Territorially things evened out from there as Jaise Shaw and Rory Clements managed shots on the UNBC goal while Hagon Kim, Luke Graham and Cole Gunhold finished the first half with shots on target for UNBC.
A big bright spot for the TWolves in the first half was Tate. The second-year Victoria product was a force to be reckoned with as his speed and creativity were on full display through the opening 45.
Halfway through the score was 0-0 with UBCO called for seven fouls, compared to UNBC’s five. Shots on target were 3-2 favouring UNBC.
Happy with his team’s possession and quality in the first half, Steve Simonson elected to start the second half with the same 11, while UBCO made three halftime substitutions. One of the Heat halftime subs was the lone Friday goal scorer Spencer Mellett.
In the 50th minute, the UBCO Heat thought they’d taken a 1-0 lead. But Alex Sol was ‘just’ offside as he one-timed home a centering pass from in close.
From there, the desperation continued as both teams badly wanted to secure three points.
In the 57th minute the levy broke and UBCO found the scoresheet. After an incredible save from Logan Pierce point-blank off Dario Fedele, Pierce stayed down. Rory Clements won the race and booted the rebound in the open net for his first of the season.
The young TWolves may have bent, but they did not break and in the 65th minute they found the equalizer off a set-piece free kick. After the ball was booted into the penalty area perfectly by Tate, Cole Gunhold placed a perfect header to the goalmouth area. From there, Luke Graham used all of his 6’2″ height to convert on a mesmerizing reverse header!
Graham was mobbed by his teammates and the home crowd did its part to keep party going.
Tate, Graham and Connor Lewis all recorded shots on target in the final 17 minutes for UNBC while Jacob York and Aidan Young had decent looks for UBCO.
With stoppage time ticking away the TWolves had one final great chance, but Connor Lewis’ header opportunity went ‘thunk’ off the crossbar. Mehdi Bounaaja and Pipeijn van der Ende also had looks but missed wide.
When the final horn sounded, the TWolves embraced one another after a hard-fought, valiant effort. The final shot total favoured UNBC by a slim 14-13 margin. The two teams combined for 20 fouls (UBCO 13 – UNBC 7).
Up next for the TWolves a Friday-Sunday weekend against the visiting Calgary Dinos and the MacEwan Griffins.