Concordia's Tyler Peake leaps to win the ball against Trinity Western.
Cavaliers Cough Up Early Lead to Trinity Western, Fall 3-1
LANGLEY, B.C.—Down a goal in the first period, Trinity Western responded with three unanswered scores to defeat Concordia University 3-1 in men’s soccer action on Wednesday.
After falling to the University College of the Fraser Valley on Monday, Concordia dropped to 0-2-0 on the young season. Trinity Western improved to 4-2-0 with the win.
The Cavs will continue its tour of Canadian programs when they face Simon Fraser and British Columbia at the Arno Zoske Tournament hosted by Evergreen State on Aug. 30-31 in Olympia, Wash. Simon Fraser opened the year ranked No. 5 in the NAIA preseason poll.
Freshman Ryan Hill got the Cavs on the board in the 24th minute of action with a left-side shot from just outside the box that sneaked past Trinity Western goalkeeper Andrew Kowan.
Jordan Hart evened the score with a 35th-minute header to the right of CU keeper Garrett Staples. The Spartans would receive the go-ahead goal with just under two minutes remaining in the first period when Daniel Lowen headed a cross from teammate Garrett Traversy in the 44th minute.
The score would remain unchanged for nearly the entire second period as the Spartans tacked on a last-second goal off the foot of David Rowse.
“We’re heading in the right direction. There were periods where we really improved from our first game in terms of maintaining possession. We had some miscommunication and showed a gap in the final seconds to allow the third goal,” Concordia head coach Dan Birkey said. “The last-second goal doesn’t represent how hard the guys worked out there, but that’s the way the game goes when you don’t finish out the period.”
Pushing the attack before the third TWU score, the Cavs managed all three of the team’s second-period corner kicks and three of the squad’s six shot attempts in the final 10 minutes of play.
Trinity Western carried a 6-to-5 advantage in overall corners and outshot the Cavaliers 12-9. TWU was charged with 19 fouls, including three yellow cards, compared to 13 fouls and one caution for CU.
Staples registered four saves in the contest while his counterpart, Kowan, stopped one shot for the win.