The Martlet

After falling to a lethal Saskatchewan Huskies side on Saturday, March 28, the UVic men’s soccer team was defeated by the UBC Thunderbirds in the annual Keg Spring Cup consolation final.

The semi-final loss was tough to swallow for UVic coach Bruce Wilson, as he said his side was on the attack for much of the 90 minutes.

“Against Saskatchewan we played quite well to be honest,” Wilson said. “They scored in the first half, and we were basically on the power play for the second half but could not score … [it was] just one of those games.”

On Sunday, the Vikes took on a tough UBC Thunderbird squad. With the cup already out of reach, Wilson opted to test some of his prospective players for next season.

“We played a second team pretty much against them,” Wilson said before explaining the move. “I wanted to see a few young players including our back-up keepers. I was not concerned with the result, rather the chance to see some players that have not had much ice time.”

The Thunderbirds were first to score as Marco Visintin netted a quick goal to put his side up 1-0. UBC’s Jason Gill would follow suit in the 33rd minute to have his side leading 2-0 at the half.

The Vikes responded with a solo effort by William Gye that saw the team narrow the point spread 2-1. That’s as close as the Vikes came, however, as the team now looks to build on this year’s experience for next season.

The Saskatchewan Huskies would go on to take the tournament through a 2-1 victory over CIS runner-up, Trinity Western Spartans.

After falling to the Vikes in November’s Canada West Championship 4-1, the Spartans will surely be looking to build on three consecutive final appearances.