Vikes defeat Spartans in soccer victory
The Vikes had some luck this week, scoring hard against the Spartans.
The Halloween hangovers were at bay this Sunday, Nov. 1, when the Vikes’ women’s soccer team defeated the Trinity West Spartans for the last game in the season.
Following a 1-0 loss to UBC on Oct. 30, the Vikes were “looking to attack,” against the Spartans, said coach Tracy David of the girls’ 2-0 victory against their rivals from the mainland.
The Vikes owned the field right from the beginning, with strong defensive play from Holly Fiddick and Shayla Behrens, keeping the Spartans to just nine shots in the game and only three on goal.
The first goal came on a free kick 29 minutes in by the Vikes’ leading scorer, fifth-year forward Kendra Flock.
The goal was Flock’s 14th of the season, breaking Ali Bach’s single-season scoring record of 13 set in 2007.
In her 69 minutes on the field, Flock led the team with nine of the 18 shots taken by the Vikes, and four of the eight shots on goal.
“Kendra is a quality striker, she’s great one-on-one, she’s a good all-around player,” said David.
The fans shared David’s appreciation of Flock, giving her a standing ovation as she walked to the bench late in the second half.
In the second half, Frankee Bencher subbed in for Natasha Walbaum and the rookie striker went straight to work, scoring the game’s second and final goal eight minutes into the half off a beautiful lead pass from Flock.
The Kamloops native showed great speed, outrunning the Spartans’ defence for the goal. She got three shots on goal in her 45 minutes on field.
The team will need more of the speed and self-assured offense Bencher showed in Sunday’s game for this weekend’s conference playoffs, hosted by Trinity Western.
The Vikes will be playing without Flock, but David believes the team can win Friday’s game, against UBC, without their lead scorer.
“Obviously, we’ve got a very very strong defence but, with Kendra away, we’re going to need the girls to really be aggressive and go for the shots,” said David. “We have a good team, a strong team, we just need to go into next Friday’s game with a lot of confidence.”
With Sunday’s victory, the Vikes ended the 2009 regular season with a 9-2-3 record and managed to be the only Canada West team to beat the Spartans so far this year.
The playoffs go from Nov. 7-8 in Langley.
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