In must-win game for the UNBC Timberwolves to wrap up the Canada West men’s soccer regular season, the youngest team in the league lost its chance to move on to the playoffs Sunday in Kelowna.
Tied in the second half, the T-wolves gave up goals in the final 10 minutes to UBC-Okanagan Heat shooters Mark Perizzdo and Matteo Bigaltini and lost 3-1.
The T-wolves played the last 23 minutes with only 10 players due to the rule that limits the number of substitutions. A rash of injuries during the game forced UNBC to push that limit.
Colin Stauffer scored the T-wolves' goal off a free kick.
Daniel Zadravec, in his Canada West last game, made 10 saves. He stopped 99 shots in 15 games to set a Canada West single-season record.
The T-wolves beat the Heat 2-1 Saturday on a goal in the 92nd minute from Noah Ballinger. That gave them a chance to bypass the defending-champion Thompson Rivers University WolfPack, but even if UNBC has swept the series they would have been eliminated because the WolfPark topped MacEwan 2-2-0 on Sunday.
UNBC (5-8-2) won three of its final four games and finished fifth.
