KAMLOOPS – The Thompson Rivers WolfPack men's soccer team's road to the 2022 U SPORTS championship hit its first road bump of the year after they fell 2-1 to the Trinity Western Spartans 2-1 on Saturday night.
 
Already assured a spot at the national championship as hosts, the WolfPack's perfect 3-0-0 start was ended thanks to a pair of Spartan goals in the first half.
 
Noah Kroeker and Soren Di Sabitino scored for the Spartans, with Patrick Izett tallying his second of the season for the 'Pack.
 
TRU carried a vast majority of the play on the night, outshooting Trinity 12-7 and ringing the ball off the woodwork three times in the game.
 
"They scored early, we turned around and had some good opportunities but we hit a crossbar, missed one right at the beginning and in the end two defensive lapses – which is for the most part uncharacteristic for us – cost us," said WolfPack head coach John Antulov.
 
TRU's first near miss of the night came just two minutes in when Izett chested the ball off a throw-in and beat a defender in the 18-yard box before firing a strike that got past Alexander Cordeiro in the Spartan net but not the post.
 
Trinity Western opened the scoring against the run of play just four minutes later.
 
A corner kick from Tristan Torresan found the head of Noah Kroeker who nodded the ball into the back of the net to give the Spartans the lead.
 
TWU doubled their lead in the 20th minute.
 
A turnover deep in WolfPack territory led to a Spartan breakaway and Di Sabatino made no mistake in tucking the ball past Jackson Gardner in the WolfPack net.
 
Trailing 2-0 at the half, the WolfPack dominated the second frame. In the 50th minute of play Daniel Sagno showed off a beautiful touch to corral a long ball and play it into Kyle Hansen who lofted a shot perfectly over Cordeiro but the rookie forward was denied his first WolfPack goal by the cross bar.
 
TRU got their lone goal of the night in the 56th minute.
 
Substitute Jost Hausendorf played in a cross and Izett was able to jump above the Trinity defence to power the ball into the back of the net.
 
"I liked the way later in the first half we found our way back into the game, and then we made some changes in the second half and I think the group that we brought in at the half were really, really good," said Antulov. "They got us back into it and we had a couple more opportunities but unfortunately didn't get the result. I thought for the most part as a group we played well."
 
From there the 'Pack kept pushing for the equalizer but were unable to find it en route to falling into the loss column for the first time this season.
 
Next up for the WolfPack is a pair of games at home next weekend when they welcome the UNBC Timberwolves on both Friday and Saturday night inside Hillside Stadium.
 
"This is all part of the learning curve," said Antulov. "We would be pretty naïve to think we would go through the season with ten shutouts, so as long as can take positives out of this – which we can, we had a lot of really good scoring opportunities and put them under pressure and they put us under pressure – we just have to learn and try to minimize those costly mistakes."