The Province from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 13

UFJIUERSITY SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2011 A44II SPORTS I THEPROVINCE.COM Sdqdk If M7 Victorious UBC gets nod over Trinity Western Sean I Ialey nodded home a free kick from teammate Tyson Keam in the 13th minute for a goal that wound up fo otb ILL: School records first conference win in NCAA Div. 2 nj I 1 a i 5 BY HOWARD TSUMURA Tilt PKOVINC.e Bo Palmer apologized. So did Strphen Spagnuolo. In the aftermath of the first NCAA conference win in Simon Fraser Clan football history, after 12 straight losses dating back to the start of last season, the emotion of the moment was overwhelming atop Burnaby Mountain on Saturday afternoon. "The best part for me was seeing some of our seniors finally getting to shed some tears of joy said Palmer, a junior who rushed for the winning touchdown in the third overtime as the Clan topped the Dixie State College Red Storm 62-56 in the highest scoring game in the history of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

Added Spagnuolo, who helped the Clan (1-4) off to an early 17-0 lead by rushing for the first touchdown of his collegiate career: "It's crazy because this is the first win in the NCAA Div. 2 and the GNAC and nobody thought we could do it. No one gave us a shot after we lost 42-7 (earlier this season) to these guys. We were up big and they came back, but we never stopped fighting." It was all the Clan could do, it seemed, to try and slow the play of Dixie's incredible freshman quarterback Stefan Cantwell, who in the first start of his college career set the conference record for most combined touchdowns, passing for five scores and rushing for three others. Cantwell's 15-yard pass to Zach Fox with 8:07 left in regulation had put Dixie State (1-3) on top by its biggest margin of the day at 42-32.

However the Clan passing game, dormant the entire season, sprang to life on Saturday behind freshman quarterback Trey Wheeler, who sparked the SFU rally with his 25-yard touchdown strike to B.J. Bryant, cutting the score to 42-39. The Clan later found themselves first-and-goal from the Red Storm two-yard line in the final minute, but after being rebuffed three straight times, Ian Sternau carried them into overtime after hitting a 23-yard field goal with nine seconds remaining. Each team took turns from the 25-yard line in overtime. In the first frame, SFU's Bobby Pospischil hauled in a 15-yard scoring strike from Wheeler, the first TD of his college career, but Dixie's Darren Carter hauled in a four-yard pass from Cantwell to equalize at 49-49.

In the second, Cantwell hit Joe standing as the winner, lifting CIS No. 2-ranked UBC to a 1 -0 win over cross-town rival and No. 9-ranked Trinity Western Spartans in a battle of Canada West soccer heavyweights Friday at Thunderbird Park. "The service on the free kick was terrific," said UBC head coach Mike Mosher. "Tyson's service was excellent all day and it starts with that.

We got that one goal and could have had a few more." The win gives UBC (5-0-3) a four-point bulge atop the Canada West conference table, while the Spartans (4-2-2) moved into a second-place tie with Victoria. WOMEN'S SOCCER Daniela Gerig's tally in the 31st minute lifted CIS No. 4-ranked Trinity Western to a 1-0 win over visiting Fraser Valley (3-5-2) on Saturday in Langley, giving the Spartans (8-1-0) a program-record eighth straight win and keeping it atop the standings just past the midway mark of the Canada West conference season. "It wasn't great for 90 minutes, but we battled and sometimes you have to win ugly," said Spartans head coach Graham Roxburgh. At Vancouver, No.

7-ranked UBC (7-1-1) kept pace with the front-runners as Taryn Lim scored her second game-winning goal in as many days as the Thunderbiras blanked the Victoria Vikes (4-3-2) by a 1-0 count to record its fourth straight shutout. UBC has recorded eight clean sheets in its nine conference matches this season. Trinity Western travels to UBC for a conference showdown at Thunderbird Park this coming Saturday. MEN'S HOCKEY The UBC Thunderbirds came all the way back from a 3-1 third period deficit to take a 4-3 lead, but faltered late and wound up surrendering a 5-4 shootout loss to the Calgary Dinos in the Birds Canada West season opener Friday at the Doug Mitchell Arena. Scott Wasden, Max Grassi and Ryan Kakoske all beat Calgary netminder Dustin Butler to put UBC ahead 4-3 midway through the third, but a Tyler Fiddler goal tied things back up, and UBC could not capitalize on a two-minute five-on-three power play in the late stages of regulation.

"We had a chance to kick them when they were down with our 5-on-3 and we didn't do it," said UBC head coach Milan Dragicevic. "To me, that was the difference in the game." Michael Wilgosh scored UBC's first goal. In the shootout, Calgary got goals from Taylor Stefishen and Brock Nixon while Marc Desloges answered for the Thunderbirds. Howard Tsumura Simon Fraser University's Bo Palmer is tackled by Dixie State's Jake Duncan at SFU Saturday. SFU won 62-56 in triple overtime, the highest scoring game in GNAC history, jason payne png things that we had to do." Wheeler had his breakthrough passing day, throwing for 306 yards and three majors, two to Bryant, who caught six balls for 134 yards.

Cantwell, named the No. 1 high school quarterback in the entire state of Utah last season by rushed for 1 19 yards and three scores and passed for 357 and five more. On the day, the two teams combined to put up 1,035 yards of total offence, 572 by SFU. Amid an offensive flurry that produced 118 points, the Clan's Justin Capicciotti had a superb game with a team-high 10 tackles, including three sacks. Don Duncan with a 25-yard touch-down pass, a major answered when the Clan's goal-line quarterback Greg Bowcott came in, and scored from one yard out to tie things at 56-56.

In the third overtime, Dixie State started first on offence, but couldn't make a first down, it's best scoring chance nullified on a great knock-down by Clan left cor-nerback Nigel Palma. Palmer then decided things, capping off a day in which he carried 31 times for 178 yards and two touchdowns. On his first carry, he went 12 yards, and on his second he went 13 yards right up the middle, extending near the goal-line to insure the ball broke the plane. "I just knew that if we scored we won," continued Palmer after what was the second-longest game in GNAC history. "We didn't want to kick a field goal." Emotion also got the better of Clan head coach Dave Johnson, who was mobbed by Clan faithful after the contest.

"For the equation to finally fit is very satisfying," said Johnson. "I've talked for two years about the quality of our character, and today it was character in action. When it got to overtime, we didn't out-coach anybody. Our kids outplayed their kids, and that is maybe the most satisfying thing. I didn't have any fancy call or anything.

It was just consistently executing the.