The first year struggles continue for the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men's soccer team. They fell 4-0 to the University of Victoria Vikes in Canada West soccer action Saturday, September 20 at Hillside Stadium in Kamloops.

The WolfPack are now 0-3-1 in regular season play while Victoria won both their games this weekend, September 19-20, and find themselves with a record of 3 wins and a loss.

"We made some silly mistakes and collectively it was likely our worst showing of the year," stated Thompson Rivers head coach John Antulov.  "Having said that, we just finished playing four of the top teams in Canada.  We had some glimpses and did some good things but the silly mistakes cost us."

"We are happy we got two wins against two good clubs," said Victoria head coach Bruce Wilson about his team coming into Kelowna on Friday, September 19, and beating UBCO before taking the WolfPack in this match. "I think we have a lot of senior players while they (TRU) are brand new in this league and they have to learn about what it's all about."

The Vikes opened the scoring six minutes in as Cameron Stokes (3^rd year, midfield, Richmond, BC) beat WolfPack keeper Travis Froehlich (4^th year, Revelstoke, BC) with a low shot.

The best chance for TRU in the first half came in the 40th minute when Logan Zimmerman (1^st year, middle, Kamloops, BC) broke down the right side and dished it straight into the middle of the 18-yard box for Corey Wallis (4^th year, Enderby, BC).   Wallis, normally a defender, launched a missile which just sailed over the Vike net tended on this day by Noah Pawlowski (3^rd year, Vancouver, BC).

Wallis had literally jumped off a plane and onto the field at Hillside Stadium after missing the last game and most of the last week of practices after a death in his family. "He was fantastic," Antulov stated. "Corey is one of our captains and our leaders.  That is what we expect of him. He always wants to win. I knew he was chomping at the bit to play. Even when we threw him up front, he did some really good things for us."

Wallis was a striker in minor soccer and Antulov is toying with the idea of having him play there permanently to get a spark offensively. He was named the TRU Bookstore/McDonald's Leader of the Pack player of the match.

Victoria went up by two before the first half was over. Again it was Stokes. This time he capitalized on a turnover by the WolfPack defense and drilled a shot into the net for his third goal of the season.

In the second half, a penalty kick resulted in Victoria's third marker with Dominic Colantonio (3^rd year, midfielder, Victoria, BC) getting the honor as his shot sailed over the Thompson Rivers wall and into the net.  That goal came 65 minutes in.

The Vikes rounded out the scoring in the 80th minute when off a free kick by Craig Gorman (4^th year, midfield, Victoria, BC), the ball wound up on the foot of Michael Baart (1^st year, forward, Victoria, BC) and he put it in the far side of the WolfPack cage.  It was his team-leading fourth goal of the campaign.

Victoria outshot TRU 23-10 in the contest, including 14-4 in the second half.

Looking at his opposition, Wilson had this to say about TRU: "They were a power house at the college level. There are some very good kids in the Interior.  They certainly will be a force in this league over time as well."

Meantime, Antulov has said from the start of training camp that the WolfPack will experience some growing pains. Still looking for their first goal after four matches, he was asked how he will preach patience to his young squad. "You just reiterate the positive. The good thing this weekend was that we were able to get all of our young players quality minutes. It is going to bode well for us in the end. It is the guys who want to win now, those are the guys you want to keep confident. But we were missing some players this weekend and it affected our quality and depth. Once we get some of those guys back next week, it will build over the next little bit."

The Vikes will visit Prince George and UNBC next week, September 27-28.  The WolfPack hit the road for a four-game road swing themselves—their first of the Canada West campaign as they play in Abbotsford against Fraser Valley on Friday, September 26, before visiting Langley and Trinity Western on Saturday, September 27.  Their next home match is October 10th at Hillside Stadium against UNBC.  Kickoff is 2 pm.