KAMLOOPS – In a battle between the two teams tied atop the Canada West men's soccer West Division standings it was the visiting Trinity Western Spartans that came out on top, with a 2-0 win over the Thompson Rivers WolfPack.
 
The WolfPack outshot the Spartans by a tally of 5-2 on the night, but a pair of errors on either side of the halftime break cost the host team dearly.
 
"We made two really bad mistakes, one in the first half and one in the second half," said WolfPack head coach John Antulov. "But aside from that first 15 minutes I thought we really started to grow into the game, and we carried that into the second half before the blunder early in the second killed our momentum."
 
Christian Rossi had a goal and an assist for the Spartans with Jacob Low providing the other tally.
 
The visitors opened the scoring in the first minute of play.
 
Rossi leapt to intercept a pass deep in the WolfPack's half and his jumping header bounced onto the foot of Low who made no mistake in firing it into the back of the net.
 
The 'Pack created a vast majority of the chances throughout the remainder of the first half. Second-year midfielder Denzel Marican in particular was a thorn in the Spartans side. The product of Kamloops went on run-after-run down the right flank, but a combination of resolute TWU defending and some timely saves from Simon Colyn sent the sides into the halftime break with the Spartans in the lead.
 
"Denzel was fantastic today and deserved to be our man of the match for sure," said Antulov. "He was really creating havoc and we'll look for him to continue that tomorrow."
 
The WolfPack kept that pressure going into the second half, but it was the Spartans who were able to score against the run of play.
 
Six minutes into the second frame a misplayed pass from the TRU defence allowed Rossi to slip in and chip the ball over a charging Jackson Gardner in the WolfPack net.
 
From there the WolfPack pushed for a way to get back into the game and it appeared the home team pulled one back with five minutes left to play. A floating ball into the box from Patrick Izett was sent into the back of the Spartans net before the goal was called back due to offside.

"Some new guys came on with really good energy. We started to create chances and put them under pressure and we need to carry that momentum over to tomorrow," said Antulov on the second half chances.
 
The second round of this first-place tussle will go tomorrow night in Hillside Stadium with kick-off. scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Entry is by donation with all donations supporting student-athlete scholarships and fans 12-and-over will be required to show proof of full vaccination.