LANGLEY, B.C. – The Trinity Western men's soccer team capitalized on a strong second half and a pair of timely goals Friday night as they shutout the No. 9 ranked Calgary Dinos 2-0 at Rogers Park in Langley, B.C.

BOX SCORE

Despite playing with an injury depleted squad and missing both Andre Costa and Jordan Whitehead, who were serving suspensions due to yellow card accumulation, the Spartans were more than deserving of the three points and, thanks to some halftime adjustments, improved their record to 4-2-3.

The loss dropped Calgary's record to 5-2-2 on the season.

Although the Dinos were the better squad for much of the first half, as they worked their right wing to much success, the Spartans weathered the early game barrage and managed a momentum changing goal late in the half.

In stoppage time, Trinity Western's Chase Wickham took off on a clean breakaway and ripped a shot low and left past diving Calgary goalie JP Crescenzi.

But the goal would have never happened if not for a strong effort from Liam McAllister, who won a hard-fought aerial battle and headed the ball forward to spring a streaking Wickham.

After Wickham's goal, the Spartans momentum rolled right through halftime and into the second half as TWU took the play to Calgary right out of the locker room.

“I think we weathered a storm in the first 20 minutes or so but I think most of their good play came from our poor passing,” said Spartans coach Pat Rohla. “A couple of adjustments we made at halftime proved successful and I thought we played really well in the second half”

And after a couple of close chances for TWU, the Spartans were rewarded for their efforts as they extended their lead to 2-0 in the 67th minute on a right to left cracker from Cody Strelauthat found its way to the top left corner.

The goal was set up by Goran Vitic (Surrey, B.C.) who sent a restarted ball to an open Strelau who then blew it past Crescenzi from the top of the box.

“Sometimes it's not the goals you score but when you score them and I think Cody's really let the air out of their balloon,” Rohla said. “It was a different class goal. It's like that one had its own seeing-eye dog. That was going in right from when it left his foot.”

While Calgary pressured late, the Dinos were never really able to break through the Spartans defensive wall and, despite a few balls sent into the TWU box, the chances were slim.

The Dinos' best opportunities of the game came from Izak Lawrence and Devin Delany who both had first half shots from in the clear but both sailed them high and wide.

For Spartans goalkeeper Andrew Fink, who made four saves on the night,  the shutout was his fifth of the year, which ties him with Crescenzi for tops in CW.

The next game for TWU is Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. as they host Lethbridge (1-6-2) while Calgary will play UBC at 8:15 p.m. MT

GAME NOTES – Shots were 14-13 favouring TWU…Spartans forward Jerome Lou got in his first Canada West game of the year as he was substituted in the 38th minute for Garrett Peters and went on to play 53 valuable minutes…The two goals TWU scored against Crescenzi was the most he has given up since allowing three goals in a 3-1 loss to Alberta Sept. 18…TWU's Jason Wiens and Danfi Parker were both shown yellow cards while Calgary's Hani Abdelkader was also booked with a yellow..

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