Four games into the the Canada West season and the UNBC Timberwolves women's soccer team is still waiting for its first goal.
After being thumped 10-0 by the Victoria Vikes in their home opener at the North Cariboo Senior Soccer League fields Saturday the T-wolves lost 7-0 to the visiting Fraser Valley Cascades on Sunday to fall to 0-3-1 in their inaugural CIS season. In their last three games UNBC have been outscored 28-0.
T-wolves head coach Andy Cameron said if the women continue to work hard in practice and games they'll eventually find the back of the net.
"We're coming close," said Cameron. "It'll come. We've just got to be patient and keep plugging away at it. We expect to win some games before the season is over."
The Cascades led 4-0 at the half after a pair of goals from Carly Neeson and singles, two minutes apart in the final five minutes, from Donna Pinning and Sunayna Samra. Fraser Valley added to their lead early in the second half with goals from Danika Snook and Shelly Beck. Tristan Corneil rounded finished the offence to make it 7-0 in the 84th minute.
"I don't think it was a 7-0 game," said Cameron. "We're learning as we go and at times we played well today but we made too many mistakes."
Despite the difficulties in producing offence for the T-wolves the 120 supporters who took in the game were encouraging throughout whenever a UNBC player succeeded.
The T-wolves had trouble getting out of their own end and when they did they couldn't maintain control of the ball long enough to get through the midfield. UNBC only fired one shot at the Cascades goal keepers, Chantelle Biagioni and Kayla Klim, who split the 90 minutes guarding the goal.
In comparison T-wolves keeper Jordan Hall faced 16 shots, making nine saves.
"We showed that we can get forward but we have to eliminate some of the mistakes we made at the back," said Cameron.
T-wolves midfielders Sydney Wilson and Katie Blokker battled hard against the UFV midfield, forcing rushes and inaccurate passes all game while Tanya Grob, named UNBC player of the game, was solid in the backfield. Grob consistently forced the Cascades players to the outside for wide, long shots at Hall.
UNBC will look for its first goal, and win, Saturday and Sunday when the Saskatchewan Huskies and Regina Cougars hit town for a pair of games. It'll be the first time both the men and women from UNBC hit the home pitch together as the T-wolves men play a doubleheader against the Trinity Western Spartans. Game time for the women is noon while the men get underway at the NCSSL fields at 2:15 p.m.
