Box Score VICTORIA – The University of Victoria Vikes swept the opening weekend of the Canada West men's soccer season and didn't allow one single goal.
The Vikes capped off the successful weekend by shutting out the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades 2-0 on Sunday afternoon at Centennial Stadium.
"You can't do much better than that to start a season," said Vikes Head Coach
Bruce Wilson. "In particular, giving no goals away and scoring five combined is pretty good."
The first half was dominated by tight play in the back end by both teams. The best chance in the first half came off the right foot of Cascades' sniper Gurmaan Jhaj, but
Jas Lally dove and snagged it out of mid air. Lally was only required to make three saves to pick up his second-straight shutout. In 11 games last year, Lally only registered one shutout.
"We moved some people into our back end this year and it's working early. Guys like
Evan Libke,
Rees Goertzen and
Evan Stefanek are making it easy on Jas right now," said Wilson.
The second half was a different story as the game opened up as soon as action resumed.
After assisting on all three goals in the season opener on Friday night,
Isaac Koch was searching for his first goal of the season in the 57
th minute. Down around the goal line, he was hauled down by freshman keeper Ethan Duggan and was awarded a penalty kick. He converted by striking it in the bottom left corner.
"It's so good to be back. It has been so long; it feels great to be contributing again," said Koch, who missed last season while recovering from knee surgery. "Everyone is working hard for each other. It's awesome to be out there right now."
Seven minutes later, Koch was at it again when he curled a pass from outside the box over to Whibley, who was near the right side of the net. For the second time this season, Whibley headed in the pass and gave the Vikes a 2-0 lead.
"UFV was coming back out my way, so I whipped it back in and I've done a pretty good job finding Ian all weekend," said Koch.
Koch has recorded points on all five goals to start this season. His forward, Whibley, has three goals, two of which he used his head for.
"Those two (Koch and Whibley) are going to be a strong duo for us this year. Ian is physical and has a great running ability. Isaac has so much skill, but I don't even think he is at top form just yet. When he gets there, look out for him down the road," said Wilson.
The Vikes are in the Interior next weekend as they take on the University of British Columbia Okanagan Heat on Aug. 31 and the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack on Sept. 1.
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