Jonathan Rinaldi
AP Shutter
0
Thompson Rivers TRU (0-0-0, 0-0-0)
3
Winner Victoria VIC (0-0-0, 0-0-0)
Thompson Rivers TRU
(0-0-0, 0-0-0)
0
Final
3
Victoria VIC
(0-0-0, 0-0-0)
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Thompson Rivers TRU 0 0 0
Victoria VIC 2 1 3

Game Recap: Men's Soccer | | TRU WolfPack

WolfPack fall to Vikes in season-opener

QUICK FIRE
  • The host UVic Vikes scored all three goals in the contest as the TRU WolfPack men's soccer team started their 2024-25 Canada West regular season with a 3-0 defeat in Victoria.
     
DIFFERENCE MAKERS
  • Matthew Pearse provided a pair of goals for UVic – one on either side of the halftime whistle – while Javier Sagaste scored the other marker for the hosts.
  • Jonathan Rinaldi fired a pair of shots towards net for TRU and was a buzzing presence in the middle of the field all game long.
  • TRU goalkeeper Luca Ortu made a pair of saves in the contest in the first start of his WolfPack career.

HOW IT HAPPENED
  • A young WolfPack squad more than held their own in the game and conjured up the first real scoring chance of the contest in the 17th minute. Rookie Minwoo Kang delivered a swinging freekick into the box that both Elijah Dos Santos and Mel Nelissen got a piece of, but they were unable to direct it past Callum Weir in the UVic net.
  • UVic took the lead against the run of play just minutes later. A TRU corner kick resulted in the Vikes being able to launch a quick counter-attack that forced a 'Pack defender to pull down a UVic forward in the penalty box. Ortu guessed right and stymied Sagaste on the ensuing penalty kick only for the veteran Vikes attacker to win the race for the rebound and give the hosts the lead.
  • UVic took a firm hold on the game ten minutes before the halftime whistle when Pearse finished a long solo run by rolling the ball past Ortu and into the bottom corner.
  • The hosts then cemented their lead ten minutes into the second frame when Pearse capitalized on a tough bounce to sneak the ball from the TRU defence and make the score 3-0.
  • The WolfPack kept fighting throughout the remainder of the match. Both Rinaldi and Marcus D'Andrea created quality scoring chances but were unable to find the target.
     
NOTABLE
  • After graduating ten players from the program last year TRU's starting lineup featured seven players making their WolfPack debut and in total 12 first years from TRU's roster saw action in the game.
 
QUOTABLE (TRU head coach, John Antulov)
  • "I thought the first half was pretty even up but we had a couple bad mistakes. Guys not marking properly off of our corner kick and then a ball getting played over the top of our defence which is not something that usually happens to us. Then we are down behind a good team 2-0 so you have to chase the game a little but I thought for the most part – for a group of guys that have only been together for three weeks and are pretty new as a team – I thought we did quite well and that we acquitted ourselves quite well."
  • "You take the score line out and I thought we did some good things."
  • On what the team needs to focus on tomorrow against UBC "Minimize mistakes."
     
UP NEXT
  • TRU will remain on the road tomorrow when they take on another tough opponent in the form of the UBC Thunderbirds in Vancouver at 7 p.m.
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