Box Score The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men's soccer team are a shining example of the late Yogi Berra saying "It's Déjà vu all over again."
For the second straight Canada West season, the WolfPack were forced to wait until the last day of the season to see if they qualified for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Pacific Division.
Such was the case again on Sunday (Oct 20). After shutting out the University of Northern British Columbia Timberwolves 2-0, they had to wait on a result between the University of Fraser Valley Cascades and the UBC Thunderbirds. The T-Birds won 3-0. TRU finishes the regular season with a record of 6-5-5. Fraser Valley is 5-6-4 and UNBC winds up at 4-8-3.
That means that Thompson Rivers will fly to Calgary, Alberta next weekend to meet the Prairie Division number one seed: the Mount Royal University Cougars. This is the third straight season the Pack have made it to the Canada West post season.
Again this year, the Pack had to sweep UNBC to knock them out of playoff contention and put themselves into the running. Saturday (Oct 19),
Justin Donaldson had a pair of goals in a 4-0 shutout of UNBC.
Sunday (Oct 20), Donaldson had one of the goals to prolong his university soccer career in a 2-0 victory over the Timberwolves.
Dylan Hooper (2
nd year, midfield, Winnipeg, MB) scored the eventual winning goal in the 30
th minute taking a pass from
Marco Favaro (3
rd year, midfield, North Vancouver, BC). Hooper wound up with three goals this year. He had five shots on goal in this match
Donaldson scored the insurance marker on a penalty kick goal in the 81
st minute. That was Donaldsons' fifth goal of the season. Donaldson had three shots on goal in the match
The WolfPack had 16 shots in the contest compared to UNBC's 11. Nine of the 'Pack's shots made it to the net as did nine of the Timberwolves.
Jackson Gardner (2
nd year, keeper, Chilliwack, BC) registered his fifth 'clean sheet' of the season. He made eight saves compared to five for UNBC's keeper Rob Goodey (3
rd year, Langley, BC).
"It was another really good battle," said WolfPack head coach
John Antulov. " They put us under a lot of bother. I was really happy the way we defended. Our back line all weekend was really really strong and the guys worked well together as a group. We are really starting to find our stride in working together and minimizing our mistakes. I was really happy with that and get the result. At the end of the day, I am really happy with the group and how we responded and finished off the season. "
THROW INS—The WolfPack and Mount Royal tangled in Calgary on Saturday September 21
st. The Cougars winning 2-1
James Fraser (4
th year, forward, Penticton, BC) scored the lone goal for Thompson Rivers as the Pack led 1-0 after the first half.
