The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack have seen their losing streak extend to two in Canada West men's soccer action.
Playing in Victoria on Saturday (Oct 5), the Pack fell 3-2 to the hometown University of Victoria Vikes. Thompson Rivers was down 3-1 after the first half.
Daniel Sagno (3^rd year, forward, Winnipeg, MB) had a goal and one assist for the WolfPack who also got a goal from Marco Favaro (3^rd year, midfield, Vancouver, BC).
Isaac Koch had two goals for the Vikes with the other coming from Evan Libke.

Jackson Gardner (2^nd year, keeper, Chilliwack, BC)  made 6 saves in goal for TRU who fall to 3-5-4 on the year.  Jas Lally stopped six in goal for Victoria who move to 7-3-1.The win was Victoria's third straight.
 
SYNOPSIS
Victoria's  Isaac Koch put the Vikes on the board in the 15^th minute on a free kick 25 yards out. Niko Cristante bluffed the strike and Koch came in and sent a rocket over the wall into the top corner past a diving Gardner.

Two minutes later, Daniel Sagno touched a pass to Marco Favaro inside the box. Favaro cut to the middle and fired to the back post with the left and slipped it past Jas Lally for his first of the season.

Koch kept it up in the 25^th minute when he took a feed out of the middle from Niko Cristante and entered the box, and buried a left-footed strike for his fifth goal on the weekend. Koch entered the weekend with four goals in eight games.

Evan Libke has been in on most corners this year, trying to head one home. The Vikes co-captain finally connected on a corner from Cristante in the 35^th minute when he cut to the back post and one-timed his first of the season.

Just before half, Justin Donaldson's diving header struck iron off a brilliant cross from Sagno. The teams entered the break with the Vikes in front 3-1.

The WolfPack opened the second half with Denzel Merican shaking loose Vikes defender Daniel Roke and getting a shot off. Lally dove to make the right-handed save, but the rebound came to Sagno in front. The third-year forward turned and fired in his third of the season in the 58^th minute.

Koch had a pair of chances after Sagno's marker to pull off his second-straight hat trick, but got handcuffed both times in too tight on net.

Lally shut down a Sagno give-and-go and later stood tall with Donaldson bearing in on him from the left wing in the 69^th minute.

The back-and-forth half continued in the 73^rd minute when off a Vikes free kick, Sergio Duran launched a strike that was tipped out of play by Gardner.

The WolfPack were relentless in the final 30 minutes, but the Vikes kept dumping it out of danger whenever possible, preserving their second win of the weekend.  The WolfPack played without three starters including James Fraser (4^th year, forward, Penticton, BC).


COMMENTS BY COACH  JOHN ANTULOV:

"Disappointing loss. We put ourselves in an early hole again. We were down 3-1. I thought in the second half , we gave a really good fight. We took charge and put them under a lot of bother, got a lot of shots on goal. Got the second goal to make it 3-2.  We really started to put the pressure on them. Unfortunately we couldn't get the tying goal. We really have to clean up the mistakes that we are making defensively over the next four games. We have put ourselves in a position where we have to run the table and hopefully get some results going the other way. We still have a fighting chance and we will make sure we have the players ready to go Thursday against UBCO."
 
UP NEXT:

Thompson Rivers will have a home and home series with their rivals: the UBCO Heat next week. The two teams will do battle on Nonis Field in Kelowna, BC on Thursday, October 10^th.

Then the two will do battle on Saturday, October 12^th on the Warner Rentals field at Hillside Stadium. It will be their final home match of the Canada West regular season. Kick off is 2 pm on Saturday, October 12^th on the Warner Rentals field at Hillside Stadium.

At half time, the Pack will honor their lone fifth year player: midfielder Justin Donaldson of Kamloops, BC.

Those matches will also be the first installments of the 2019-20 President's Cup series between the two schools.  UBCO and TRU will battle in men's and women's soccer, basketball, volleyball and cross country. Points are awarded for each victory and the trophies handed out at the end of the season.  Thompson Rivers won the men's and women's President's Cup in 2018-19.

All of the above games can been seen on a pay per view basis on www.CanadaWesttv presented by Co-OP.

(With help from UVIC Sports Information)