The Victoria Vikes fended off a furious second-half push from the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades, hanging on for a 1-0 victory in Canada West men's soccer action.
Isaac Koch's goal in the 35th minute stood up as the game-winner and goalkeeper Jas Lally made 12 saves for the clean sheet, allowing the Vikes (8-5-1) to punch their ticket to the playoffs and maintain their grip on second place in the Pacific Division, which comes with hosting duties in the first round of the post-season. Home field advantage will be on the line on Saturday night when UVic closes out the regular season against the third-place Trinity Western Spartans in Langley.
The Cascades (5-5-4), meanwhile, find themselves in a must-win situation in the wake of Friday's result. Anything less than a victory on Sunday vs. first-place UBC (2 p.m., Thunderbird Stadium) means they'll fall from their fourth-place perch and miss the playoffs.
"Really proud of my players," Cascades head coach
Tom Lowndes summarized. "I thought in the first half we were good, we just made a mistake and got punished for it. Then in the second half, we've absolutely bombarded them for 45 minutes plus six minutes of injury time, and had numerous chances and just couldn't put one away.
"We showed a real team spirit and team fight amongst us. I just don't think we could have given any more tonight, and sometimes that's just how it goes."
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The Vikes grabbed the lead when Niko Cristante carried the ball through the midfield and sent it out to Ian Whibley on the left. He played it back across the box to Koch for the finish. Koch's ninth goal of the campaign gives him a share of second place CW in that department.
In the 42nd minute, the Vikes pushed the ball to the doorstep of the goal line on a scramble in the box, but Cascades keeper
Ethan Duggan somehow managed to secure the ball with his legs in a maze of bodies to keep his team within a goal.
The hosts dominated the second half, outshooting the Vikes by a 12-3 margin, but were unable to coax the ball across. Just beyond the 70-minute mark,
Manpal Brar rose for a header in the box and was contacted from behind by Lally – the UFV striker was forced to exit the game due to injury, and the Cascades bench was left to wonder why a foul hadn't been called.
In the 78th,
Gurmaan Jhaj played a slick little pass to
Parman Minhas sprinting into the box down the left – he had a clean look, but Lally dove to his right to somehow get a hand on Minhas's rising blast.
The Cascades continued to press, and launching numerous balls into the penalty area and getting on the end of several of them. In injury time, Jhaj unleashed a volley deep in the box, but it was blocked by a UVic defender. Just before the final whistle, a pass from
Jehmrode Kahlon sprung Jhaj into a pocket of space at the left of goal, but Lally came charging out to cut down the angle and smother his shot.
Looking ahead to Sunday's must-win vs. U SPORTS No. 5-ranked UBC, Lowndes noted that should the Cascades earn a victory, "then we truly do deserve to get into the playoffs.
"You're going to the No. 1 team in the conference, nationally ranked, and a team that's notoriously good at home," he observed. "We'll come up with a game plan. We'll be banged up, bandaged up, missing a few players to suspensions. But I've got confidence in my squad that we can go there and shock the world."
FREE KICKS: The Cascades honoured fifth-year seniors Jhaj,
Brady Weir,
Tyler Henderson and
Nawaf Binsaleh in a pregame Senior Night ceremony to commemorate their final home game.
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