After a shaky opening quarter-hour of their season-opener facing the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack Saturday at North Cariboo Field, the UNBC Timberwolves dug in their heels and started defending their turf like junkyard dogs.
That led to scoring chances, a few of the Grade-A variety, and they came close to beating their Canada West Conference rivals from Kamloops. As it turned out. They had to settle for a 1-1 tie, but the T-wolves played well enough to win against a team that will host the U Sports men’s university soccer championship this fall.
The WolfPack struck first off a free kick from Mitchell Popadynetz, 9:29 in, which eluded the outstretched hands of a diving Ty Venhola, a fifth-year goalkeeper playing his first game in the UNBC nets since a concussion which forced him to miss the entire 2016 season.
The T-wolves finished the half on a high, dominating the ball and keeping it deep in the TRU end and for most of the second half kept up that trend, keeping possession for long stretches. Their efforts on offence were finally rewarded at the 63-minute mark when defender Gordon Hall hammered in a corner-kick feed from Dan Goodey.
Not long after, Conrad Rowlands had the winning goal on his foot 10 metres away from goalie Lubomir Lagdolen while standing just off the goalie’s doorstep but lifted his shot high and wide.
The game turned in the WolfPack’s favour with about 15 minutes left when UNBC midfielder Josh MacAvoy got tossed for arguing an embellished dive which resulted in a yellow card for True’s Jan Pirretas Glasmacher. That left the T-wolves with just 10 players on the field for the rest of the game. The WolfPack used that to their advantage and mustered at least three dangerous-looking shots that either missed the net or sailed over the head of goalie Venhola. The ball barely left the UNBC defensive end in the last 10 minutes and the Abbotsford native was kept busy trying to make himself look big in front of the cage, which he did, preserving the tie.
“It was an excellent game, we were moving the ball, getting in behind creating chances and luckily we came back and got one to tie it this point,” said Hall, 22, now in his fourth year. “We’ve been working hard on practice being able to break the lines and hopefully try to play through teams but in the end, one point that’s not bad.”
Earning a point in their first game was a great start for T-wolves compared to last year, when they had just one win and three points to show for their first seven games of the season and missed the playoffs.
“It was a nervy start because it’s a new season home opener against a good team with lots of people watching, and we were quite poor in the first 15 minutes but after that we were full value and deserved a tie,” said T-wolves head coach Steve Simonson. “Not that they didn’t have chances but we definitely threw away a couple points with some misses today.”
The same teams meet again in the rematch Sunday at 1 p.m. at North Cariboo Field.
