WOLFPACK MENS SOCCER RELEGATED TO CLASSIFICATION ROUND AT CCAA NATIONALS

For Immediate Release: November 6, 2008

Kamloops BC:   Missed opportunities cost the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack Men’s Soccer team a chance of playing for a medal at the 2008  Big Kahuna/Adidas 2008 Canadian College Championships.  The WolfPack fell to the Concordia University College of Alberta Thunder 3-1 in overtime to drop to 0-2 in the tournament.  

“It was the story of our year,” lamented TRU head coach Sean Wallace afterwards  “A couple of bad bounces, a missed handball call.  It all came back to do us in.”

TRU opened the scoring at the 38 minute mark when Peter Loncar (1st year, Kamloops, BC) scored on a penalty shot.  The WolfPack held the lead until the 56 minute mark when forward James Senior (2nd year, Sherwood  Park, Alta) lofted a ball towards the net that evaded WolfPack keeper Allan Connor (3rd year, Salmon Arm, BC).

The WolfPack had two great opportunities to regain the lead late in regulation.  Kyle Halverson (4 th year, Armstrong, BC) took a shot which hit the post in the 65 th minute.   In the 79 th minute, Kyle Bowman (4 th year, Kamloops, BC) saw his drive sail over top of the net.

After a scoreless first overtime, Senior scored his second goal at the 113 th minute capitalizing on his chance which beat Connor to the lower left side of the cage.  With TRU playing all their players up, 2nd year forward Chris Lemire (Edmonton, Alberta)  converted a clearing ball into the goal while Connor was backing up.

The match ended on a sour note when  WolfPack midfielder Seb Gardner (2nd year, Vernon, BC) collided with Concordia’s Thomas Senior (Sherwood Park, Alta).  It appeared as if Senior had broken his leg. He was carried off the field while Gardner was assessed a red card. 

Concordia is 1 and 0 and plays Algonquin College (1-0) in their final round robin game Friday Nov 7 th at 6 pm.  The WolfPack is 0-2.  They’ll play in the Classification match at Noon on Saturday Nov 8 th.

CORNER KICKS:  TRU will be without Gardner and 3rd year forward Tim Unaegbu (Port Coquitlam, BC) for their last match.  Unaegbu picked up his second yellow card in the 66 th minute.   The CCAA Soccer Nationals website has had over a thousand hits a night from countries around the world including Sweden, Great Britian, Austria and France.