Victoria’s quick strike offense overpowers Timberwolves WSOC

A three-goal outburst in the first half was more than enough for the Victoria Vikes to put it into cruise control in front of a lively atmosphere.

Markers from Sophie Murphy, Tess Vande Vegte and Brianne McLeish set the tone for the visitors from Vancouver Island as they defeated the UNBC Timberwolves 4-0 on Friday in front of several hundred School District 57 students at Masich Place Stadium.

In the 18th minute, Quesnel’s Ruby Nicholas rushed up the middle of the field and found and off-balance Murphy who made no mistake past T-Wolves goalkeeper Brityn Hinsche.

Eight minutes later, a solid individual rush by McLeish led to another precision pass that found Vande Vegte who header got past the UNBC backline and rippled the onion bag.

McLeish would then be the recipient of a Vande Vegte feed to pad the lead to 3-0 at halftime.

The Timberwolves would come out with some energy in the second half due to the substitutions of Celeste Kirkness, Kate Rattee and Abigayle Bradley but were unable to break the shutout of Vikes goalkeeper Kayley Lidstone, who only had to make four saves for the shutout.

Malia Phelan added a single in the 86th minute for Victoria.

Hinsche made 14 saves in defeat for the Timberwolves.

Victoria improves to 6-1-3 on the season while UNBC drops to 1-8-0. The Timberwolves host the Mount Royal Cougars on Sunday at Noon from Masich Place Stadium.

In men’s action, UNBC fell 1-0 in Vancouver to the high-powered UBC Thunderbirds.

Despite getting outshot 26-8, the lone goal came in the 15th minute as Oliver Bennett collected his 2nd of the season past T-Wolves netminder Logan Pierce.

UNBC was forced to play with ten men for a chuck of the game due to a red card given to sophmore defender Matteo Cuzetto as well as yellows to Koss Nystedt and Pip van der Ende.

The Timberwolves sit 1-10-2 while the Thunderbirds are a Pacific Division best 8-0-2.

Both teams battle again tonight (Saturday) at 7:00.