KAMLOOPS – It was a battle for all 120 minutes and more but the Thompson Rivers WolfPack men's soccer team couldn't extend their season in a 2-1 Canada West Quarter-final loss to the Mount Royal Cougars.
 
Taking place on an icy and snow-covered pitch in Calgary, the 'Pack were battling both the conditions as well as a Cougars squad that finished first in the Prairie Division and are ranked No. 5 in the nation.
 
"It was a fight," said WolfPack head coach John Antulov. "I thought we battled them really, really tough and there were many points in that game where if could have finished some chances we would have been well deserving of the win."
 
Josh Flaksman and Miguel Da Rocha scored the goals for MRU while Akwasi Agyekum tallied for TRU with the assist going to Dylan Pauw. The WolfPack were more than equal to the task provided by the Cougars and fired 18 shots towards net compared to MRU's 11.
 
After TRU goalkeeper Svyatik Artemenko was forced to make a couple nice saves in the opening minutes, the WolfPack dominated play early.
 
Harry Taylor, Alesandro Comita and captain Patrick Izett all posed an offensive threat at different times but it was the host Cougars who opened the scoring in the 34th minute.
 
Flaksman made a nice run that wrong-footed a pair of WolfPack defenders before tucking the ball in past a sprawling Artemenko to give MRU the lead.
 
TRU responded just 12 minutes after the halftime break.
 
Izett whipped in a wonderful free-kick to Pauw at the back post who hoisted the ball back across the face of goal for a waiting Agyekum to power into the back of the net.
 
A duel between two of the toughest defences in the conference played out for the rest of the second half to send the game into extra time.
 
After a stalemate in the first half of extra time, TRU had their best chance to take the lead in the 110th minute of play.
 
A great slide tackle from Jonathan Rinaldi led to Michael Ojo spraying a ball to an on-rushing Dylan Hooper but his one-timer effort was stopped by the MRU goalkeeper.
 
With just two minutes left in extra time disaster struck for TRU. A rare MRU foray forwards led to a corner kick that saw Da Rocha tuck home a header and end the WolfPack's season.
 
"When we started the year 0-5 a lot of people were counting us out, but the way the group stuck together and the way our leaders led to get to this point in a game against the number five ranked team in Canada - that we definitely could have got something out of - just shows what this group is all about," said Antulov.