German exchange student Patrick Baurer kept soccer fans at Centennial Stadium thoroughly entertained during the halftime break on Friday, juggling a soccer ball in various funky forms as spectators kept warm, clapping in unison.
The first half of play wasn鈥檛 bad, either, as the host University of Victoria Vikes and UBC-Okanagan Heat exchanged a flurry of goals midway through the opening session.
The Vikes eventually had to settle on a 2-2 sa国际传媒 West draw to slip to 3-1-2 in the Pacific Division, while the Heat still cool their heels at 1-3-1. They stole the point, though, when Enzo Paal slotted a penalty kick by keeper Noah Pawlowski in the 66th minute after substitute Jorden Leib was deemed to be brought down in the Vikes鈥� box.
鈥淚t did hurt because it was a really tight game. You can鈥檛 second guess the ref, but he saw something I didn鈥檛 see,鈥� disappointed Vikes head coach Bruce Wilson said of the call, but with another home game tonight at 7:15 against Thompson Rivers there was no time to fret about it.
鈥淲e have a game [today] and we need to get ready for that. We want to take care of our points at home, but we were 2-1 ahead and fairly comfortable and the penalty turned everything around,鈥� added Wilson.
Play took a while to heat up on the cool Victoria night, but goals eventually arrived in fast and furious fashion. Gareth Langdon and Sam Prette scored goals within a span of a minute to pace the Vikes on what definitely felt like a fall evening.
A Victoria corner kick was turned aside, but Vikes midfielder Cam Hundal was offered a second chance and slipped a pass to Langdon to open the scoring in the 25th minute. Prette then cashed in on a miscue in the visitors鈥� back line in the 26th minute.
Brandon McCallum turned up the Heat as the visitors closed it to 2-1 in the 30th minute as he squeezed the ball through Pawlowski鈥檚 wickets.
EXTRA TIME: The Vikes women鈥檚 soccer team (2-2-1) is in action today at Thompson Rivers facing the 2-3-1 Wolfpack before continuing on to UBC-O to take on the Heat on Sunday, both with 2 p.m. kickoffs.
