VICTORIA, B.C. – The University of Victoria Vikes men's field hockey team had a troubling start to their Vancouver Premier league season, losing 7-2 to India Club on home field Sept. 13. Despite the score margin, the Vikes conceded four goals in the remaining 25 minutes of the game after a decent start to the match.
 
The Vikes, who were without injured senior defender David Bell, still had a strong contingency of veterans including fourth-year midfielders Tyler Klenk and Brenden Bissett, as well as third-year midfielder Connor Martin. The Vikes added to the mix an international recruit in Rodolphe Dejace. The rookie defender brings experience from a strong club side in Belgium.
 
The Vikes earned goals from Aidan Pye and Brenden Bissett, while Toby Owen allowed six goals and made seven saves throughout the match. The Vikes failed to capitalize on three penalty corner chances, while India Club were only able to convert one of five chances on set pieces.
 
"We played well in spells today and showed that we can move the ball," said Kevin Laidman in his second season as Vikes men's field hockey head coach. "We got burned on the counter-attack late in the game when we were pushing up but it was only 4-2 until the last five minutes of the game. We had a solid performance from Connor, Aidan and Brenden today and we will definitely continue to word on capitalizing on our opportunities."
 
India Club's Amit Kullar put the visitors up 1-0 just nine minutes in to play, putting the ball into the net after a goal mouth scramble. Three minutes later and Gurtej Gill had a precise deflection after a long-range free hit by passed several Vikes. Gill's deflection caught Owen off-guard and sailed in to the top of the mesh to make it 2-0.
 
The Vikes got on the board in the 25^th minute after Martin had a nice solo effort up the middle of the pitch. With three defenders around him, Martin squeezed the ball forward and through to Bissett, who calmly rolled the ball past India Club keeper Iqwinder Gill to leave the Vikes trailing only 2-1. The score remained 2-1 for India club entering the break.
 
Less than one minute into the second frame and the Vikes tied the game at two. A timely steal initiatied by Martin sprung Pye at the top of the circle The second-year North Vancouver forward blasted a back-hand shot that went right through Gill's legs and into the back of the net.
 
The Vikes had several proceeding chances to score but several shots hit the side meshing of India Club's net. The missed opportunity was a preview of what was to come as India Club managed to score three goals in the last five minutes of the game.
 
Gurtej Gill got his second of the game in the 43^rd minute deflection in a hard hit from outside the circle by Manvir Kingra. From there, the Vikes started to press up but compromising their numbers in the back field.
 
India Club tallied on a penalty corner drag flick, a stroke and a nice passing play field goal to take the game 7-2. The visitors received quite the boost in their roster with two-time Olympian Ravi Kahlon, 2013 Junior World Cup player Manvir Kingra and 2014 Youth Olympic games silver medallist Harbir Sidhu. The experience paid off as the Vikes are now 0-1-0 in the Vancouver Premier League, while India Club advance 1-0-0.
 
Up next the Vikes men will host the Burnaby Lakers on Sept. 20 at 2 p.m. at UVic's field hockey turf.