WolfPack win big to open season

QUICK FIRE

• The Thompson Rivers WolfPack women's soccer team kicked off their 2025 Canada West campaign with a bang Friday night as they rolled to a 5-0 victory over the UNBC Timberwolves.
   

DIFFERENCE MAKERS

• Esi Lufo led the way with two goals and an assist for TRU. Rookies Sara Kuusimäki, Nat Seiz and Laila Rafou all scored a goal apiece while Bridget Baird, Makenna Ford and Kat Stewart added the other assists.
• Floor Ursem made five stops to record the shutout in her WolfPack debut.
• Johanna Rathke put together a valiant effort in the UNBC net with 12 saves in the game.
   

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The WolfPack started the season with a bang. Dominating play early, TRU needed just four minutes to open the scoring when Ford jumped on a turnover deep in the Timberwolves end and sent the ball into the middle of the box where Kuusimaki was in the perfect position to poke it home.
• Ursem ensured the 'Pack went into the halftime break up 1-0 with a big save in the 40th minute. Charging off her line, she shut the door on a Timberwolves breakaway with a strong stop.
• TRU ran away with the game in the second as Lufo scored two goals just ten minutes apart. After scoring her first from the penalty spot in the 52nd, Lufo struck again in the 62nd minute of play. Bridget Baird sent a great ball forwards and Lufo managed to beat her defender to get to it first before calmly rounding Rathke and putting the ball into the open net.
• A pair of rookies provided the insurance markers with Seiz scoring from long-range in the 73rd minute and Rafou burying a nice pass courtesy of Lufo in extra time.

NOTABLE

• The five-goal victory ties for the largest margin of victory in the program's Canada West history.
• Lufo's three-point night is just the third in program history.
• In total seven rookies saw the pitch for TRU with five recording points on the night.

 
QUOTABLE (WolfPack head coach Mark Pennington)

• Yeah, obviously we're happy with the result. Scoring goals like that is a great confidence boost.
• I'll give credit to UNBC, although the score probably is not very flattering to them, they actually caused us some problems early on and when the game was really tight, our goalkeeper had to make a couple of saves. If she hadn't It could have been a very different story.
• We did a couple of things different tactically in the second half and that paid dividends, we got at them a bit more and it was great.
• Sara got us off to a flying start, four minutes in as a first year, scoring her first goal. We were really excited for her. And that was a great way to start.
• On the play of Lufo "I think Lufo actually tied her goal output for the whole of last season today, she was really good. She was a really difficult player to play against and she caused them problems all night. Her link up play was good. The way she got in the box was good and then she was clinical when she got the opportunities."
• On the contributions from multiple rookies. "We've rewarded the hard work that the rookies have done in preseason and how well they've shown. I think it just shows how much faith we have in their ability. We started five of them today and more got in.
• We gave the hardest worker award to Makenna Ford. I thought she was a real integral part of our midfield. She won battles for us and it was great for her to get an assist.
• We're really excited to see them have a real impact, you know, week one, and hopefully they can grow from the confidence of that and kick on moving throughout the season.

UP NEXT

• The WolfPack and Timberwolves will be back in action this Sunday, Aug. 24 in a game that gets underway at noon in Prince George.