The score was tied at 2-2 as the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men's soccer team fought hard to keep their undefeated season alive against the Laurentian Voyageurs. With every tick of the clock, the Bold felt the pressure mounting.

The team had only played three matches to that point — two wins and one tie. But this game had been a rough one, and they needed to emerge victorious. 

Not everyone can stay calm in a moment like that — both teams holding their breath, feeling the weighted blanket of stress knowing that the next goal would likely seal the game.

TMU's Luca Porfiris was different, though. 

The defensive midfielder had been a key piece and leader in the Bold's system during all four of his years with the squad, increasing his playing time every season. 

"I was happy with how much I played as a first year — I think I played six to eight games," said Porfiris, "Second year is when I started a lot more, third year I played pretty much every game … my playing time has gone up throughout the years."

He noted that he had earned the trust of both his teammates and Bold Head Coach Filip Prostran over the years, too: "My role has steadily grown as I've been gaining more trust with [Prostran] ... it's important with my teammates that they trust me as well, and vice versa."

But despite being such a valued asset to the team, Porfiris had never scored.  

Putting the ball in the net just wasn't his main goal on the pitch. As a defensive midfielder, he ensured that TMU kept the ball in their possession and helped his teammates get chances around the net.

"I'm honestly more of a defensive player — I win balls in the middle," explained Porfiris, "If I can go forward, I play some passes up the field, playmake." 

Players like Porfiris aren't typically recognized as much as their offensive counterparts. Because goals and assists are the first things that the casual viewer will see on the stat sheet, the value of keeping the ball in your team's possession becomes overlooked.

However, that's never something Porfiris worried about:

"I've never been a guy to go out on the field and be like, 'Oh, I need to get an assist today, I need to get a goal.' I'm more like, 'Let's do our job and get the win.'" 

Those stats certainly weren't on his mind when the Bold lined up for a corner kick in the tied game against the Voyageurs.

"It was a pretty back and forth game, a rough game," recalled Porfiris, "I was like, 'Boys, someone's got to get this one. We need a goal here to win the game.' It just happened to be me."

With the outcome of the game on the line, the corner kick came in towards the far post. Porfiris' instincts kicked in — he made the read, jumped for it, and managed to head the ball into the net.

In the immediate aftermath of the spectacular play, Porfiris didn't even recognize that he'd scored for the first time with TMU — his focus was only on his team's victory.

"It could've been anyone," he said. "It didn't matter as long as we got the win. In the moment, I was just happy we scored the goal."

That mindset shows just how much of a team player Porfiris is: a major career accomplishment, and yet all he could think of was winning the match. His thought process wasn't that he needed to score–it was that somebody needed to score. And when nobody else stepped up, he did it himself.

As the game continued on and the Bold cruised into a 3-2 win over the Voyageurs, Porfiris slowly began to realize his incredible achievement.

"After the game I was like, 'My first goal!'. I was relieved it finally happened, and in a pretty good moment, too, to win the game."

After four years of giving his all to the Bold, Porfiris' impact on his team's success wasn't just recognized by the eye test, but by the stat sheet as well.

His teammates caught onto the news shortly after the end of the match. They celebrated not only the team's win to remain undefeated, but their veteran defensive midfielder's first career goal.

"Everyone was excited for me," Porfiris said, "Getting the win as a team, but for me specifically, getting my first OUA goal was pretty special." 

Porfiris was grateful for the congratulations, but individual accomplishments were never something he strived towards.

In all four years of his career at TMU, he's focused on winning. He's played the right way, and it's helped to lead the Bold to success. The team has won at least one round in the OUA playoffs in every year that Porfiris has been on the roster, including a semifinal appearance in 2024.

That consistency goes to show that the stat sheet doesn't tell the full story. It's the drive to win, and a team mindset that leads to success. Porfiris is a prime example of that, and it's only fitting that his first time scoring came at a time when his team needed it the most.

After breaking the ice with his first goal against the Voyageurs, Porfiris scored again just eight days later against the Trent Excalibur.

"I might be a goal scoring machine now, who knows?," he joked.