VICTORIA—The UVic Vikes were in the game right until the very end, but ended up losing to the Castaway Wanderers 31-18 on October 1.

"Defensively we played well and we had lots of opportunities. We just weren't able to put points on the board when we needed to," said Vikes head coach Doug Tate.

Morgan Tate led the Vikes with two tries, with Crosby Stewart also scoring a try. Fergus Hall rounded out the scoring for the Vikes with a penalty conversion.

The loss drops the Vikes to one win and two losses in their Island Premier season. With the win, Castaway now has two wins and one loss.

The Vikes and the Wanderers were evenly matched throughout the game. The Vikes trailed by just six points with five minutes left to play.

Tate was pleased with the effort of his back-line in the game, especially the play of Jeff Nishma-Miller and Mike Harvey.

Despite starting the season with two losses from the first three games, Tate knows that his team still has lots of time to get back on track in their chase for the Barnard Cup.

"We have such a long season, we just have to keep plugging away. These hard games are what we are going to be playing in throughout it," said Tate.

The Vikes will have to keep improving as the season goes on according to Tate. The quality of play in the league is a lot higher this season than in years past.

Having played every team in the league once, Tate and his coaching staff will get to work on figuring out how the Vikes can match up better against James Bay and the Castaways, the two teams they have lost to so far this season.

The Vikes will have next week off. They return to action on the road, October 15, in a game against the Westshore Valhallians.
 
SCORERS:

M. Tate (2T), C. Stewart (1T) F. Hall (1P)