By Aneesha Birk
The Dinos men’s soccer team played its first home games earning a 4-3 victory against the University of Victoria Vikes Sat., Sept. 23 and a 1-1 draw against the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds Sun., Sept. 24.
The second Dinos point of Saturday’s game against Victoria was mistakenly headed in by a Vikes player. Backdropping such displays on the field was the spirit of the fans decked out in Dinos’ red. They kept the men’s team motivated to stick it out against the Vikes and take it with a single deciding goal.
“We had three goals in 10 minutes [in the first half],” said Dinos head coach Andy Gibbs. “We didn’t expect a 4-3 game. Our big players played big.”
Second-year business student Ryan Holbrooke scored the winning goal of the game and made the Dinos’ first home game a success.
“The [winning] goal was a combined effort; I had a great cross from Carlos Cruz,” said Holbrooke. “The team seems to be clicking; hopefully we can carry it over to the game with UBC tomorrow.”
Sunday’s game against the T-Birds brought out the competitive streak in the players as Dinos mid-field and fourth-year engineer Andrew Waiand was at the centre of a scuffle on the pitch.
“They took offense to my taking it hard on the captain,” said Waiand. “Lethbridge will be competitive, [but they’re] not the same calibre as [UBC].”
“The first half we were outstanding,” said Gibbs of the 1-1 draw against Vancouver.
Adam Onulov, a fifth-year communications student, scored the Dinos’ only goal Sunday.
“We lost momentum as the first strikers came off,” said Onulov. “I don’t know if coach Gibbs can stress this enough, we must put points up–we must win against Lethbridge.”
With only four teams out of eight from the division going to playoffs, the Dino must maintain their stamina and continue to put up points.
“Lethbridge is very, very difficult at home,” said Gibbs. “It’s two games, so trash and competitiveness will carry from game to game.”
Victory this coming weekend against Lethbridge could advance the Dinos’ odds to make the playoffs, and hopefully this new-found rhythm will stay strong throughout the weekend’s games.