KAMLOOPS – They led for over an hour but the Thompson Rivers WolfPack men's soccer team couldn't hold on for victory in a 1-1 draw with the Saskatchewan Huskies on Saturday afternoon.
 
Ryan Lewis scored his sixth goal of the season with Alesandro Comita picking up the assist while Jackson Gardner made three saves in the WolfPack net.
 
Kuhle Bekwayo answered for Saskatchewan with his equalizing effort coming just three minutes before the final whistle.
 
TRU outshot the Huskies 13-9 in the game and only a combination of near misses and great play from Jaron Slopinski in the Saskatchewan net kept the 'Pack from scoring more.
 
"It's one of those games where we didn't capitalize on our chances early, especially in the first half when I thought we had some really good scoring opportunities," said WolfPack head coach John Antulov. "I think if we had been able to get that second goal it would have made a difference and calmed everything down, but we didn't. We fought and battled – which has been our trademark – but right at the end our calmness let us down a little bit, we made a mistake and the ball was in the back of the net."
 
Lewis added to his second-best Canada West goal tally of six in the 25th minute.
 
A long throw-in from Patrick Izett was headed on by Comita where a lurking Lewis was able to hold off a Huskie defender and just trickle the ball into the back of the net.
 
TRU kept up the pressure and had multiple chances to add to their lead in the first half. The best of those chances came from the foot of Izett who went on a great individual run around several Huskie defenders only to be denied by Slopinski with a pair of diving stops.
 
TRU continued to maintain the majority of the run of play until a frantic final 20 minutes.
 
The Huskies threw everything they had into finding the equalizer and were rewarded with a great strike from Bekwayo in the 87th minute.
 
"We knew it was going to be a battle, you can't have the expectations going in that you're going to win 4-0 or 3-0, you have to be prepared for close games and it's whichever team is more mentally strong over 90 minutes that are the guys that are more often than not going to get the result," said Antulov. "This was definitely a learning point, especially for the last 20 minutes where we didn't keep our shape as well as we usually do and when that happens you are going to get hit."
 
While the late goal meant the WolfPack didn't pick up the three points, the draw in Saskatchewan continued their strong start to the season as they remain first in the Pacific Division with a record of 5-1-1. Next up for TRU is a game at home next Friday when they welcome the Calgary Dinos.