After pulling off a colossal upset, the UNBC Northern Timberwolves will kick for provincial gold.
Saturday in Surrey, site of the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association men's soccer playoffs, the Timberwolves defeated the Douglas College Royals of New Westminster 2-1 in a semifinal contest. UNBC got goals from Kellen Strobl and Rakan Ibrahim and superb goaltending from Ryan Flannagan, who was picked as his team's top player.
Reynold Stewart scored for Douglas, which had UNBC in a defensive posture for much of the game.
"We're in kind of a bit of disbelief right now, but it was a lot of fun to beat those guys," said UNBC midfielder Tyson Williams.
The T-wolves led 1-0 at half-time and the Royals tied things up in the second. Ibrahim's winner came in the 80th minute.
"There was a long ball in from the right hand side and the goalie misjudged it," Williams said. "It went over him and Rakan just headed it in. It was extremely exciting."
The top-seeded Royals were the defending playoff champions and went through the 2010 regular season with an unbeaten record of 10-0-2. The T-wolves, a fourth-year team in the BCCAA, posted a mark of 6-5-1.
On Sunday, at 4 p.m., the Timberwolves will face the Vancouver Island University Mariners of Nanaimo in the gold-medal game. In Saturday's other semifinal, the Mariners downed the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack 2-1 in overtime.
Sunday's winner will qualify for the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association national championship tournament, Nov. 3-6 in Edmonton.
On Friday, in a quarterfinal game, the Timberwolves edged the Capilano University Blues 1-0.
