VICTORIA—For 88 minutes there was nothing to split the Victoria VIkes and the University of British Columbia Okanagan Heat as the two teams did battle at Nonis Sports Field in Kelowna, B.C., on Saturday afternoon, but the last few minutes proved fatal for UVic.

A draw seemed all but guaranteed before a last minute goal by rookie Spencer Young ensured that the Heat would take the win and all three points in Victoria's opening game of the season.
 
Vikes head coach Bruce Wilson thought his team deserved a better result than the loss that will go in the standings. The Vikes move to 0-1 on the young season while the Heat pick up their first-ever win against UVic in conference play to move to 1-0.
 
"For sure, we deserved a draw," said Wilson. "We played 90 minutes [then] a mistake in the back. We dropped three points there."
 
The Vikes certainly had their fair share of chances throughout the game, but the team was lacking the critical offensive spark that so often decides matches. That lack of a spark was something that Wilson knew was going to be a problem coming into the season without some key players from years past.
 
"We don't have Craig Gorman, we don't have Cam Hundal and we don't have Dominic Colantonio," said Wilson. "We knew that this was going to be a factor for us."

Despite giving up the late goal the Vikes were strong defensively, UBCO put 10 shots towards the net of Vikes goalkeeper Noah Pawlowski, although most of them were long-range efforts that Pawlowski handled easily.
 
For a young Vikes team every game must be looked at as a learning opportunity and Wilson certainly hopes that his team will take some lessons from the match and use them for the rest of the season.
 
"You have to give them credit, they kept it together right until the very end and scored in the last second," said Wilson. "Hopefully we can learn from that."
 
The Vikes will have to put the loss behind them and move on quickly. They face the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack tomorrow, August 28, in a game that kicks off at 1:00 p.m. PDT on canadawest.tv.
 
"It's going to be very difficult, again we're on artificial turf and we play in Kamloops where it will probably be extremely hot again," said Wilson. "We have to come out and battle away and see if we can get a point or three."

SCORING                            1     2     FINAL
Victoria (0-1-0)                    0     0     0
UBC Okanagan (1-0-0)       0     1     1

Scoring Leaders:
UBCO: Spencer Young (88')
UVIC: 

GAME MVPs
UBCO: Hamish Walde
UVIC: Keegan Lang