KAMLOOPS – A hard-fought contest between two teams tapped to finish near the top of the conference finished 1-1 in Kamloops Friday, Sep. 10 as the Thompson Rivers WolfPack and UBC Thunderbirds played to a tie.
 
Both goals came from set-pieces, as scoring chances from free-play were at a premium inside Hillside Stadium in what was both teams return to Canada West action after a cancelled 2020 season.
 
"They guys were totally pumped up, it was actually to a point where I was having to calm them down a bit," said WolfPack head coach John Antulov.  "And then when you play a team as good as UBC you have to be calm and relaxed. Overall we battled and fought back to get a result and we have to be pretty happy with that."
 
Fourth-year defender Jackson Farmer tallied in the 26th minute for UBC, while third-year forward Dylan Hooper answered in the 72nd for TRU.
 
The goalies of record were Jackson Gardner for TRU and Bennett McKay of the Thunderbirds. Gardner more than did his part in the home opener, making a pair of saves including a diving effort off a well-struck free kick from the foot of Thomas Gardner.
 
"Defensively I though our whole backline was fantastic, we had a very young middle of the park with two rookies in there against a couple of the top players in Canada. I thought Jonathan Rinaldi and Akwasi Agyekum handled themselves really well."
 
UBC was chosen first in the annual Canada West Coaches Poll just days ago, while TRU was selected fifth.
 
These teams will be back in action tomorrow night for a 5 p.m. kick-off inside Hillside Stadium. Due to regional health restrictions spectators will not be permitted, but the game can be watched live on canadawest.tv.