Sports 15

Timberwolves End Home Games with Decent Results

Brady Stark
Team Member

oth the men’s and the women’s soccer teams ended their

home schedule with results that they should be fairly
happy with. Obviously every team wants to go for the win
every time, but the competition they both faced dictated that
wins were not going to be easy to come by.

The men’s team undoubtedly had their two hardest games
of the year, facing off against the number two ranked club in
the nation. Previously, the Timberwolves had only managed
a 3-0 loss as their best result against the Thunderbirds of
UBC since their inaugural season in the CIS; this two-game
series would prove to be just as hard a task as previous
encounters. The first game was played on a pretty chilly
Saturday afternoon at the rotary fields as the two teams
made their presence felt early. The Thunderbirds got on the
board fairly early, as they had the majority of the possession
throughout the game. Despite the lopsided possession, the
Timberwolves actually had more solid chances on goal.

Attempts by Wallace, Jubinville, and others either went wide
or was stopped by first year keeper Chad Bush. Overall the
first half was not indicative of what was on the scoreboard.
Most of the fans in the stands thought that the home squad
should have at least tied the game up, if not have a lead.

In the second have, the team from UBC showed why they
were the second best university club in the nation as they
controlled the ball and got a plethora of solid chances on the
UNBC keeper Ty Venhola. Ty had a very good bounce-back
game against the Thunderbirds, as he was sort of a hopeless

wanderer for most of their game against the University of
Fraser Valley a week prior. Venhola stood tall in his net and
turned aside numerous solid chances by UBC. At one point,
the UNBC keeper even made an absolutely spectacular save
against one of UBC’s best strikers in Lahken as he dove

and stretched out his arm to make the save on a penalty
shot. Unfortunately, for Venhola and the Timberwolves,
the game ended up being 2-0 for the visiting squad.

Despite the loss, the Timberwolves knew that they could
compete with the Thunderbirds going into the next games
match. In the next game, the Timberwolves ended up losing
by the exact same score, but this time, UBC could thank the
referee for helping them with both goals as the Timberwolves
luck was not anywhere near the pitch. First, the referee
misses an offside call (the linesman’s flag was even up), and
then the referee calls a penalty shot against the Timberwolves
for a weak tackle by star defender Dan Goodey. Even though
it was another hard loss for the squad that has only won one
game this season, the boys should be proud of what they
accomplished in their last game at home for the season.

Not only was it the last home game of the season for the
women’s soccer squad, it was also the very last game for 4
players of the Timberwolves as both Hall sisters, Tanya Grob,
and Jo Ribero were playing their last home games ever for the
university. It was a frustrating set of games with mixed results
from Friday to Sunday. In the first game, the Timberwolves
women were absolutely dominant for the first half, the

squad was passing well, everyone was sticking to their target
assignment, and everything was looking great. The women
eventually sniped home a goal in the first half off the boot of
star striker Sydney Hall. The game continued 1-0 till the last
few minutes of the came when the Pronghorns stormed across
the mid-field area and caught a lucky bounce over the head

of Jordan Hall to tie the game and leave the field with a draw.

The one thing that must frustrate coach Andy Cameron
the most is the fact that the team had their first win in
the bag before the last couple of minutes in the game. Not
only is the timing frustrating, the fact that the exact same
situation happened in the first game of the season reared
its ugly head. The Timberwolves were up 1-0 against the
UBCO team with a mere 3 minutes left before they coughed
up the lead to end in a draw. If 1 were Andy Cameron, I
look at the first game and feel proud of the women for 87
minutes out of the 90. The second game of the last home
stand was one that the team can really build off of.

Despite playing a very good Calgary Dinos team, the UNBC
squad looked very competitive throughout the contest. Timely
saves from Jordan Hall made sure that her team was not going
to lose their last home game. The women have about half of
their games left in the schedule with a majority of them being
games that they could win. Look for some fantastic results
from this squad being led by the fifth year players wanting

to taste post-season action before they hang up their cleats.

Smoke's Rant: BCHL Pumping out More Talent

Brady Stark
Team Member

he BCHL has long been the silent developer of some

really good talent that goes on to have either a really
good career in the NCAA or in the NHL like Kyle Turris of
the Ottawa Senators. Every couple of years the league gets
a player drafted by a NHL team, usually in the later round.
This year however, it seems that the BCHL, in particular the
Penticton Vees have somehow developed 2 potential first
round picks in the upcoming draft. One could make the
argument that the draft is going to be a little weaker than
the one that saw Connor McDavid go to a team whose recent
claim to fame is destroying 1st round pick, but I digress.
Tyson Jost and Dante Fabbro have both been lighting up
the BCHL this year with Jost having 16 points in 8 games
while defenseman Fabbro has 12 points in 8 games and is a
big reason the Vees have only 1 loss this season. One would
imagine that players of this caliber would want to go to the

WHL in order to go against harder competition and to get
more noticed by NHL scouts.

There are two reasons that these player have elected to go

the BCHL route. First, the BCHL has a world class scholarship
program wherein they have a connection with universities in
the United States for their players to go down and play in the
NCAA with a full ride. The second reason that Jost and Fabbro
have chosen to be with the Penticton Vees is because of their
outstanding reputation for developing their players with state
of the art facilities and superb coaching. The Vees have been
the class of the BCHL since the Stone Age and it does not seem
to be stopping any time soon. The fact that these two players
are being touted as first found picks does not surprise anyone
that follows the BCHL. It is almost a certainty that Jost and
Fabbro will follow in the footsteps of Columbus Blue Jackets
Ryan Johanssen and Beau Bennet as first round selections.