KAMLOOPS – The Thompson Rivers WolfPack men's soccer team set a new program record on Friday night inside Hillside Stadium, defeating the Trinity Western Spartans by a score of 2-1 and recording their seventh regular season win of the year in the process.
 
"We always have a really tough time with trying to get results against Trinity Western, we knew it was going to be a battle going in and we just tried to stick to our game plan," said WolfPack head coach John Antulov. "I thought overall our guys both attacking and defending were really solid. We kept possession of the ball well, created our opportunities and luckily enough we were able to get two goals."
 
Ryan Lewis and Dylan Hooper scored for TRU with Josh Banton earning an assist. Soren Di Sabatino responded for the Spartans with his fourth goal of the season.
 
The win moves TRU to 7-2-1 on the year. Their mark of seven victories is the most they've earned in a Canada West regular season since joining the conference in 2014. The WolfPack win combined with a UBC loss puts them firmly in charge of first place in the Pacific Division.
 
For the Spartans, the loss drops them to 5-4-2 where they hold the fourth and final playoff spot in the division.
 
Alexander Cordeiro was strong in the Spartan net, making six saves on the night while Jackson Gardner increased his program record with the 21st win of his U SPORTS career for the WolfPack.
 
 TRU opened the scoring in the 14th minute. A corner kick from Ante Grgic found Elijah Dos Santos at the back post, Dos Santo played the ball into the box where a Josh Banton header was deflected into the net by Lewis.
 
The Spartans made the most of their limited scoring chances in the game by equalizing in the 25th minute. Jordan Low forced a turnover deep in the WolfPack end and popped the ball to Di Sabatino who maneuvered past a pair of 'Pack defender before tucking the ball into the bac of the net.
 
Despite the WolfPack piling up the chances the two teams remained tied until the 78th minute mark when Hooper made the difference. Dos Santos pinged a ball cross field to Patrick Izett. He cut into the 18-yard box and unleashed a shot that Cordeiro stopped but was unable to hold onto and Hooper was in the right place at the right time to put the game away.

The goal was Hooper's second game-winner in as many contests as the fourth-year winger from Winnipeg has been on fire after returning from injury.
 
"Dylan has so much pace and plays with tenacity. The last two games he's come on and all of a sudden a defender who has played the whole night has to mark Dylan who comes on for the final 25-30 minutes and he just goes at them," said Antulov. "It's hard to defend and when plays the way he has it's huge for us."
 
The WolfPack will be back in action tomorrow night when they host the Fraser Valley Cascades for fifth-year night inside Hillside Stadium at 7:00 p.m.. The Spartans will remain on the road to take on the UBC Okanagan Heat tomorrow at 6:00 p.m.