VICTORIA - The UVic Vikes men's soccer team dropped the first leg of their weekend provincial battle on Saturday falling 2-1 to mainland rivals the UBC Thunderbirds. The loss ends a ten game unbeaten run at Centennial Stadium for the Vikes.

Thunderbird striker Ryan Reynolds pounced early netting the first goal two minutes in.

Cole McFarlane responded for the Vikes 24 minutes later scoring his team high fourth goal of the season.

The Vikes pressed on but a demoralizing 45th minute unassisted goal by UBC Thunderbird Marco Visintin crushed their momentum heading into half time.

The home side would outshoot the Thunderbirds 11-7 in the second half but were unable to find the back of the net.

"It was a good battle," Vikes captain Sam Wingham said after the match. "They just came out quicker than we did. We controlled the ball for certain periods but weren't able to match their speed."

The loss was the first of the Vikes 2009 campaign and sees them head into the second leg of their weekend series against the Trinity Western Spartans with a 3-1-1 record. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:15pm on Sunday, September 27th at Centennial Stadium.