KAMLOOPS – In a battle between two of the top Canada West sides to open the season Friday night, it was the Thompson Rivers WolfPack who came out on top with a 2-0 victory over the visiting UBC Thunderbirds at Hillside Stadium.
In what was a tense affair from start to finish, a goal from TRU's Ryan Lewis and an improbable own goal from UBC sealed the victory for the hosts.
"It's game number one and we are very gutted to lose today as I thought we deserved much more from the game," said UBC Head Coach,
Mike Mosher. "But, we played well in phases on a day where it was not easy to play in a pretty big wind. We picked our moments and we had enough chances to win the game, but we need to take those when they come."
UBC came out of the gates the stronger of the two teams, with
Tristan Nkoghe in particular causing the WolfPack defence fits. A combination of a couple saves from TRU goalie Jackson Gardner goalie and timely interceptions from defenders Josh Banton, Jan Pirretas Glasmacher and Elijah Dos Santos kept the game level heading into the half.
The WolfPack worked their way back into the game in the second 45 and after a couple near misses, Lewis was able to find the opener in the 63rd minute. Marco Favaro forced a turnover deep in UBC territory and was able to chip a ball perfectly onto the head of Lewis who powered his effort off the bar and into the back of the net.
UBC nearly equalized just minutes later. The Thunderbirds pushed things upfield immediately after the restart and a looping effort from
Nick Fussell appeared to beat Gardner, but the play was called back for offside.
The Thunderbirds kept up the pressure and only just failed to put the ball into the net in the 82nd minute.
Thomas Gardner whipped in a corner kick that the WolfPack goalie punched away but only as far as
Eric Lajeunesse who connected on a beautiful volley that rang off the post, the rebound fell back to Gardner who just hit the ball over the open net.
From there the WolfPack were able to batten down the hatches with players stepping up all over the field.
In extra time TRU was able to grab an insurance marker from the must unlikely of sources. Jackson Gardner launched a kick long, there was a miscommunication between a Thunderbird defender and
Axel Thulin Lennselius in the UBC net and before anybody knew what was happening the ball was across the line.
"They took their chance in the second half and that changes the game as they have something to cling to," added Mosher. "But credit to our group on the response. We score a goal very quickly after theirs which gets called back. Then they score in the final seconds of the game on a silly mix up by us, that is just a learning opportunity that had no real bearing on the final result. We're choked at the result today, but we get back at it tomorrow and fix things. It's game one and there's lots to play for. If we play and compete like we did today we will be fine."
As Mosher mentioned, the 'Birds can still return home from the season opening road trip with three points if they come up with a better result Saturday when they visit the UBC Okanagan Heat in Kelowna. Kickoff is set for 6:00 p.m. PT.
