The UNBC Timberwolves have kicked off their final weekend of 2024 play in fine fashion.
Friday night in Kamloops, the TWolves were full marks in 1-0 victory over the WolfPack. Hagon Kim supplied a brilliant first-half free kick goal in the 20th minute and Logan Pierce stopped all three shots fired his way to earn the clean sheet.
Friday’s opener with TRU was arguably the most connected and dominant that the Timberwolves have been all season to date and from the jump, Steve Simonson’s club played fast and urgent.
First-year midfielder Mehdi Bounaaja hit a crossbar early in the eight minute, and then Trevor Scott came close in the ninth minute, but Olivier Juneau came up big in the TRU goal for his first save.
After more zone time and pressure, the TWolves were rewarded in the 20th minute. Isaac Tate got it started with his speed. The leading scorer for the Green and Gold was tackled by Aren Christianson outside the penalty area, drawing a foul and setting up a free kick for Hagon Kim.
Kim, who spent his summer playing soccer in Kamloops for Rivers FC, took the free-kick and didn’t miss.
Kim snuck a shot perfectly through the defensive wall and past a diving Jumeau, giving UNBC a 1-0 lead and giving him his first career Canada West goal.
The TWolves kept the pedal down.
In the 24th minute, Bounaaja placed a wonderful cross into front of the TRU goal from the left wing. Connor Lewis did great work to separate from the defense while staying onside, but just missed tapping home the Bounaaja pass and the score remained 1-0.
Through 31 minutes, the TWolves managed eight shot attempts – three of which were on target. Tate, Colin Stauffer, and Pipeijn van der Ende all had looks at the TRU goal after the 1-0 goal was scored. Through 45 minutes, UNBC held a 10-0 edge in shot attempts and led by one.
UNBC goalkeeper Logan Pierce entered the night with the most saves in the conference, but didn’t have to make his first save Friday until the 50th minute when he swatted away a header attempt from Mikkel Rosenlund. He then caught a break one minute later when Abdel Coulibaly’s header attempt off a TRU corner kick hit cleanly off the crossbar.
After that surge from TRU, UNBC managed to settle things down, and did well to protect their 1-0 advantage.
With stoppage time looming, tempers flared when TRU’s Tommy Moon got tied up with UNBC’s Trevor Scott off a TRU throw in. When battling for a ball, Scott went down, and Moon appeared to kick Scott’s side. That drew a crowd and red cards were assessed to both Moon and to UNBC’s Connor Lewis.
Fortunately, from there, cooler heads prevailed and shortly thereafter the final whistle sounded, signaling the second victory of the season for UNBC.
In goal, Pierce finished the night with three saves, and is now five shy of matching Daniel Zadravec’s single season Canada West record, and six shy of surpassing it!
The victory improves the TWolves record to 2-11-1. They’ll wrap up their 2024 campaign tomorrow night at 7:00 pm in a rematch with the WolfPack.