The UNBC Timberwolves have cinched their spot in the Canada West men’s soccer playoffs.
Now with two games left in the regular season, the T-wolves still have a shot at hosting the first-ever playoff game in UNBC soccer history.
To make that happen, they’ll need to win their final two games this weekend in Abbotsford against the Fraser Valley Cascades.
Coming off a four-point weekend at Masich Place Stadium against the UBC-Okanagan Heat (they beat the Heat 4-1 Sunday after a 1-1 tie on Saturday), the T-wolves rank third in the Pacific Division (7-4-3, .571 winning percentage), just ahead of the fourth-place Cascades (6-5-2, .513).
Depending on what happens this weekend with the first-place UBC Thunderbirds (8-3-2, .667) and second-place Thompson Rivers University Wolf-Pack (7-3-3, .615), it’s possible for UNBC to leapfrog either team and lock up a top-two position needed to host a first-round playoff game.
UBC is hosting UBC-Okanagan (4-5-4, fifth place) on Friday in Vancouver, while TRU travels to Victoria to take on the last-place Vikes (2-8-4). Then on Saturday, the two division leaders will battle each other at UBC.
UNBC striker Michael Henman has scored 18 of the T-wolves’ 31 goals this year and needs just one goal to tie the Canada West record for most goals by an individual in a single season. Simon Vickers of Victoria, in 1996, and Ajeej Sakaria of Alberta, in 2016, each scored 19 goals in a season and share the record, which dates back to 1986.
Henman also has 20 points, five back of Sakaria, who established the high-water mark of 25 points in 2016. Now in his fourth season at UNBC, Henman already has 30 career points, more than any other T-wolf.
Henman’s teammates, fourth-year midfielder Anthony Preston and rookie midfielder Koby Greaves are among four players leading Canada West with five assists.
The UNBC women fell one position short of making the playoffs when they lost their last two games of the season last weekend at Masich., falling to 1-0 to TRU 1-0 and 4-2 to UBC-O.
The T-wolves (5-6-3) ended up sixth in the Pacific.
In Canada West women’s soccer the top-five teams advance to playoffs, while only the top four men’s teams make the postseason cut.
