KAMLOOPS – They pressed and pressed for a goal but in the end the Thompson Rivers WolfPack men's soccer team were unable to find an all-important tally in a regular season ending 1-0 loss to the UNBC Timberwolves.
 
The result was an important one in the Canada West playoff picture.
 
With the loss the WolfPack finish with a record of 4-3-5 and after losing a tiebreaker (head-to-head results) with the similarly 4-3-5 Fraser Valley Cascades, the WolfPack drop down to the fourth and final playoff spot in the West division. They will now get set to travel to Calgary to face a Mount Royal Cougar team that finished atop the Central division standings with a record of 6-1-3.
 
The Timberwolves struck early when Michael Henman scored the first goal of the game just over two minutes into the contest.
 
The WolfPack spent the rest of the match trying to catch up, knowing that a win would see them finish second in the division and a tie in third, but it wasn't meant to be as none of the team's season-high nine shots on net were able to beat the UNBC goalkeeper.
 
"I was a little frustrated with the first ten minutes, I thought we came out a little flat and probably weren't as prepared as we should have been and that's on me as a coach to make sure the team is ready to go," said WolfPack head coach John Antulov. "After the goal our guys woke up a bit and really started to put pressure on them. Unfortunately, we haven't been scoring a lot of goals this year so it's tough to come from behind."
 
With the focus now shifted towards Mount Royal, the 'Pack will prepare to face a familiar foe. The teams met during the preseason in Kamloops with the Cougars winning a tight affair by a score of 1-0. There is also recent playoff history between the two squads. A 2-1 Cougar win in Calgary brought the WolfPack's 2019 season to an end at the quarter-final stage.
 
"It's going to be a really tough matchup," said Antulov. "They've been scoring goals in bunches so we're going to have to make sure we are strong defensively and that guys are focused and ready to go. It's going to be a good battle, we played them in preseason and it was a really good game. We match up well with them and they match up well with us so it's going to be a battle."
 
The Canada West quarter-final match is scheduled to take place Saturday, Oct. 30 at noon PST and can be watched live on canadawest.tv