Ty Venhola earned his reputation for stopping soccer shots, not scoring on them.
As a goalie for the UNBC Timberwolves he started 41 of the 58 games he played over five seasons from 2012-18 and was twice named the team's top defensive player.
Little did we know he had striking ability.
Venhola was deadly around the net and scored six goals over the weekend for Team South Korea in the World Cup Indoor Soccer Tournament at the Prince George Dome. Two of those goals came in Sunday's 5-3 win in the men's division championship game over Team India.
"India's a good team and they added a couple good players at the end," said Venhola, who has his own commercial painting business in Port Moody and is currently playing outdoor soccer as a goalie for Croatia in the Vancouver Metro Soccer League. "A lot of us played in (the co-ed division) as well and we just tried to keep running and have fun.
"I flew in from Vancouver and it feels like a vacation coming back here to see old friends."
Venhola opened the scoring about eight minutes into the first half, then scored what turned out to be the game-winner with 3:44 left in the second 20 minutes. He broke for the net and from 15 feet out took a pass from the corner from tournament MVP Kensho Ando and buried it into the goal behind 'keeper Sukhman Singh.
India's dynamic duo, cousins Abou and Tantan Cisse, were scoring threats whenever they jumped onto the floor. Abou, a third-year UNBC student who plays for the Timberwolves, blasted a shot that looked hard enough to cave in the chest of goalie B.J. Barth, but he kept it out the 1-0 lead intact heading into the break.
Tantan Cisse, a 17-year-old high school student, got India on the scoreboard 37 seconds into the second half and Julian Debica gave them their first lead with a shot that squirted through the legs of Barth five minutes into the 20-minute half.
Anthony Preston, off a free kick, passed to Conrad Rowlands and Matt Jubinville scored on Rowlands' rebound to tie the game again, and a few minutes later Jubinville made it a 3-2 game when he deflected in Venhola's low shot at the open goal while standing just outside the crease.
India shooter Jonah Smith made good on a penalty shot after Rowlands fouled Debica, who was attempting to head the ball, and that tied the game 3-3 with six minutes left, setting the stage for Venhola's winner.
Preston added a high looping rainbow into an empty net in the final seconds, after Ando stripped the ball away along the side boards, triggering the celebration for South Korea.
For the players, the chance to strut their soccer skills served as a distraction from the constant bombardment of news lately from around the world about the coronavirus crisis. The two-day 12-team tournament briefly put the pandemic into the back of their minds.
"Nobody was worrying too much," said Preston, whose T-wolves have canceled all team activities. "It''s not too bad in Prince George yet, but in the coming weeks maybe we'll have to be more careful."
Tournament organizers made it known to the teams they could pull out and still receive a full refund of team fee if they had any concerns about being around a crowd, but none of the teams did that. Even with spectators, there was never more than 200 people in the building over the weekend, well within the provincial restriction of 250 for any public gathering.
Preston is in his second year studying biochemistry at UNBC. On Saturday, students were told they would no longer have face-to-face instruction on campus. Until further notice, lectures will be recorded or teleconferenced and made available to students through web connections.
"I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with the time," said Preston, who has plans to play summer soccer in the Pacific Coast Soccer League. "They're making us go online and our team practices are also canceled. I'll be at home but they're telling people (who live on-campus at the student residence) that they should be trying to find different accommodations.
"I haven't even thought of next season, I just assumed it would be resolved by then. If (COVID-19) doesn't come here for another couple months it might be bad right around fall."
Sidney Roy, a T-wolves striker from 2012-17 who was UNBC's athlete of the year in 2015, helped Team Seychelles win the co-ed division Sunday. When all the major sports leagues began shutting down last week over coronavirus fears she thought the indoor soccer tournament would also be on the hit list and was pleasantly surprised.
"(Tournament organizer) Jon Lafontaine messaged all the managers on Friday night and asked if we wanted to go ahead with this and we all said yes," said Roy. "It's a good break and it's just nice to get out and go play soccer. People are talking about it on the sidelines but least when we're on the field we get something else to focus on.
"We were hoping to get to the final. Most of us on the team are ex-varsity (UNBC) players and we're all pretty washed up now but we were hoping to get that momentum. Joe (goalie Luong) stood on his head and for not being a soccer goalie, he killed it. He's a basketball coach and he's good with his hands so that helped a lot."
Luong won the co-ed division top goalie award and was unbeatable in the final, earning a 2-0 shutout win over Team England. Cheona Edzerza and Mitch MacFarlane were the goalscorers for Seychelles. Kylie Erb of Team Seychelles was the tournament MVP, Mara McCleary of Team England was picked as the top defender and Edzerza was the top scorer. Abou Cisse and Jubinville shared the top scorer award in the men's division, Rowlands was the top defender and Barth took home the top goalkeeper award.
