WOLFPACK SOCCER AT HOME VS DOUGLAS AND KWANTLEN
Matt Loader watches as Kyle Bowman moves upfield
(courtesy: Dale Deruiter)
For release: Thurs, September 17, 2009
Kamloops, BC: The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack soccer teams are hoping that home pitch will result in victories this weekend. Both WolfPack teams are off to good starts in the BC College Athletic Association and have found themselves nationally ranked. To stay that way, they will need to come up with victories Saturday (Sept 19) against the Douglas College Royals and Sunday (Sept 20) when the Kwantlen Polytechnic Eagles pay a visit to Hillside Stadium.
The WolfPack men's squad enters the weekend seeded second in their division with two wins and two ties. The women are first in their group with two wins and two losses.
"Our focus again will be to be tight defensively and working as a group," states WolfPack men's co-head coach John Antulov. TheWolfpack have some injuries as 3rd year midfielder Seb Gardner (Vernon,BC) remains on the shelf and rookie midfielder Braeden Burrows (Kamloops, BC) suffered a knee and ankle injury.
One bright spot for TRU has been the play of keeper Ethan May. The 2nd year Sa-hali Secondary grad (Kamloops, BC) has three shutouts this year thus far and a goals against average of 0.50. "Ethan is playing much better," stated Antulov. "He is becoming more confident and making the saves when we need him to. He still has a lot to learn and has the potential to take his game to another level."
May will be playing close attention to Douglas' Owen Sinclair and Reynold Stewart (both of Delta, BC). Both have two goals in three games.
On the women's side: defending and getting organized were the main thrusts of Tom McManus' practices this week. "I told everyone at the beginning of the season that we would be a goal scoring team," he says. "But we are unfortunately letting goals in at the other end."
Injuries haven't been a stranger to TRU: Bronwyn Crawford (2nd year, midfielder, Kamloops, BC), Abbey McAuley (2nd year, midfielder, Langley, BC) and Blair MacKay (2nd year, defender, Kamloops, BC) are all on the mend. This comes as a blow as both Crawford and McAuley have been powers in center mid thus far.
One player who has been red hot has been 2nd year forward Cassie Drummond. Since she returned to the BCCAA, Drummond (Kamloops, BC) has four goals in as many matches.
All of the teams the "Pack play this weekend are below them in the standings. McManus for one, isn't taking them lightly. "Everyone we play will want to knock us off," he says. "Right now, we are still sitting in first place in our converence and that's where we want to stay. Both matches are going to be tough but we do hope to pick it up defensively and in the area of goal scoring".
The women's matches this weekend are at noon. The men are at 2 pm.
SUBSTITUTIONS: This weekend, teams from the Kamloops Youth Soccer Association will be playing at half time. Eastside Marios in Aberdeen Mall is sponsoring this event which includes the teams getting to meet WolfPack players after their matches and the chance for them to have a pop and pizza party. Saturday sees two U-10 girls squads (coached by Don Mann and Kelly Pehl) playing in the women's game and a U-7 boys squad (coached by Vance Gerlib) playing at halftime of the men's match. On Sunday, it'll be two U-7 girls squads (directed by Deb Morgan and Tony Gilbert) while U-6 boys squads coached by Rob Cupello and Laurie Kitamura will take the field.
The WolfPack Women have secured an exhibition game against NAIA Simon Fraser University. They will be at Hillside Stadium on Thursday October 15 th at 5 pm.
TRU's mens squad will miss two players due to red cards on Saturday: 3rd year midfielder Casey Cullen (Kamloops, BC) and 5 th year forward Kyle Halvorson (Amrstrong, BC) will sit it out.
