Eagles soar past frustrated WolfPack
Tracy Watson
Daily News Sports Reporter
September 11 2006
Missed early chances proved costly for the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men's soccer team on Saturday.
CJ Jhooty scored all three goals and Erman Ozkan earned the shutout as the Kwantlen Eagles downed the WolfPack 3-0 during their B.C. Colleges Athletic Association season-opener on a soggy day at Hillside Stadium.
What was particularly frustrating for the TRU men, though, was that they could have taken a big lead before Jhooty even started his onslaught of two goals in the first half and one more in the second, the latter on a penalty shot past TRU keeper Aaron Kidd.
| "It was frustrating. We just weren't as motivated as we should have been," said WolfPack captain Brad Clark, a fourth-year midfielder. "I don't have a reason for that. We just had a couple of chances we missed and just kind of sunk back in the second half. We should have been attaching.
"Misses happen. You've got to keep playing. You can't give up."
The frustration spilled over to TRU head coach Sean Wallace, who always looks as if he would rather be out on the field with his boys.
"It's very frustrating," Wallace acknowledged. "I hate to be corny, but it's missed opportunities. Early on we were all over them, good distribution of the ball, our forwards were clicking... and we just couldn't put a ball in the net.
"I think if we had, it might have been a different game. But it was a good test."
Kwantlen rode the wave provided by Jhooty and Ozkan, its top recruits this season. Jhooty, from Surrey, was a member of the Vancouver Whitecaps reserve team and is in Canada's national pool of players. Ozkan is a provincial team member who helped lead Burnaby Central to the 2005 B.C. AA high school title. |
MURRAY MITCHELL/DAILY NEWS
|
| TOR SKJELVIK (left) of the TRU WolfPack and CJ Jhooty of the Kwantlen Eagles are airborne in search of the ball during a BCCAA men's soccer game at Hillside Stadium on Saturday. The WolfPack came out on the short end of a 3-0 score. |
The pair provides a big shot in the arm for the Eagles, who last season finished second to last.
"So we're expecting a huge difference in the standings this year," said head coach Dan Sapic.
It didn't help the WolfPack that it was without fourth-year defender Hee-Young Chung, who returns to the team after a stint in the CIS with the University of Victoria.
Chung was forced to sit out and also will be out Saturday against the Capilano Blues, the result of a red card he received during the last game he played in the BCCAA - three years ago.
Still, Wallace was hoping that, if the WolfPack couldn't win on Saturday, it would at least pull off a tie.
He said his team will be ready to avenge the loss when the teams meet again at Kwantlen on Oct. 7. There will be a little extra motivation to succeed, given the late-game shenanigans that broke out as tempers flared and players from both teams began sniping at each other. A couple of yellow cards were thrown into the fray.
"A few things that happened at the end there... that No. 11 from Kwantlen (Milad Rahmati) sitting in front of Ben Nielsen when he's got a separated shoulder there and pretending that he's crying holding his arm - not a very classy thing for them to do. And you know what? A lot of guys made a comment about that. They said, 'We'll wait. We'll get our opportunity,'" Wallace said.
"We just file this one. I told the kids to just remember some of the things that went on in this game and use that in practice, use that in our upcoming games and wait for our next opportunity with this team here. Because they're a skilled team but I think we can beat them."
Nielsen was taken to hospital for X-rays on Saturday. Wallace said Nielsen will be out four to six weeks with stretched ligaments in his right shoulder.
-30-