Lacking the kind of football that traditionally kicks off the North American university sports season on many campuses, the University of Victoria relies on that other football.
Friday night lights here fall upon soccer.
And they do it up right, targeting students in the first week on campus to come out for the soccer home opener in a spirit-raising exercise known as Thunderfest. A crowd of 2,383 was on hand at Centennial Stadium and the UVic Vikes didn鈥檛 disappoint in delivering a 3-0 sa国际传媒 West victory over the University of Northern sa国际传媒 Timberwolves, who have probably never played in front of a crowd so large, or so loud. As you would expect of students on the first on-campus Friday evening of the school year, the atmosphere was raucous.
The fans had plenty to cheer about early at the Vikes scored at seven minutes on a penalty kick by Craig Gorman after Sam Prette was hauled down in the box. It was that player combination 鈥� with Prette assisting on Gorman鈥檚 goal 鈥� that gave UVic its 1-1 tie in the season opener last week in Vancouver against the nationally sixth-ranked UBC Thunderbirds.
鈥淭hat was a big result for us against UBC and we wanted to keep the momentum going tonight,鈥� said Gorman.
鈥淭he early goal was a boost in confidence for us. And it鈥檚 easier to run hard when you have home fans cheering for you like that.鈥�
Centre-back Keevan Webb then brought the crowd to its feet again by moving up and unleashing a lacerating long shot that found the inside of the short post at 28 minutes. The always-dangerous Cam Hundal made it 3-0 at 40 minutes.
鈥淯Vic has the best atmosphere for its sports [in CIS] and there was great spirit tonight,鈥� said Hundal, co-captain of the Vikes along with Gorman.
UNBC, coached by former Victoria Highlanders mentor Steve Simonson and assisted by former Vikes player Wes Barrett, simply had no answer against a deep and veteran UVic side.
The Vikes (1-0-1) and Timberwolves (0-1) meet again at Centennial Stadium tonight at 7:15.
