KAMLOOPS – A last-gasp, desperation header in the 90th minute allowed the Thompson Rivers WolfPack men's soccer team to salvage a 1-1 draw with the UBC Thunderbirds Saturday night inside Hillside Stadium.
Trailing since the 20th minute of play, it looked like the clock was about to run out on TRU's comeback attempt before first-year defender
Mikkel Rosenlund played hero.
With the referee seconds away from blowing his whistle for full-time,
Marco Favaro whipped in a dangerous free-kick right into the middle of the UBC box. Rosenlund was first to it, glancing his header past a diving Bennett McKay and into the net to see the teams finish the game on level terms.
"It just shows the battle and the fight in the guys, they didn't give up. For the most part I thought we played well, especially in the first half," said WolfPack head coach
John Antulov. "I thought we had really good possession and some scoring opportunities. The second half was just a grind and a battle, so for us to be able to fight to get something out of it was great."
Sebastian Dzikowski had opened the scoring for the Thunderbirds.
After starting the contest with most of the pressure, a great run from Victory Shumbusho ended with the ball pinballing around the WolfPack box. Rosenlund threw his body in the way of a shot from Thomas Gardner but the ensuing rebound fell to Dzikowski who made no mistake in finding the back of the net.
The 1-1 tie was the second in as many nights for the two squads, as they each start their 2021 Canada West campaigns with records of 0-0-2.
"When you're playing UBC, if you can get those two results you are going to take them and run," said Antulov. "They are an excellent team with excellent players and for us to be able to battle them and get two results like that is huge for us and our program."
Both these teams will continue their 2021 Canada West campaign next weekend. For TRU it will be an Interior rivalry match-up when they head to Kelowna to face the UBC Okanagan Heat. UBC meanwhile will return to Vancouver for their first home games of the season where they will face the UNBC Timberwolves.
"I'm really happy for the group, it gave us a lot of confidence and an idea of where we are at right now," said Antulov. "We still have a lot to improve on, and a lot of work that we have to do but this weekend was good first steps."
