LANGLEY, B.C. – The TWU Spartans men's soccer team opened its first home game of the season with a 1-0 win over Thompson Rivers University at Chase Office Field Friday night.

Spartans Jacob Low (Port Moody, B.C.) finished with the only goal in the game, while goalkeeper Sebastian Colyn (Langley, B.C.) earned his first clean sheet of the season for TWU in the win.

With their first win of the season the Spartans improved to 1-2-0, while the WolfPack's record dropped to 1-1-1 in their first losing effort of the season.

Not long after TWU's Gordon Grice hit the left post from in close, the Spartans broke through when Low took a Jake Ruby (North Vancouver, B.C.) feed from just inside the box and buried it past the TRU netminder to the low right corner to make it 1-0 TWU in the 29th minute.  

Just eight minutes into the second half Low almost got his second of the game for the Spartans, but was stopped by a diving save from TRU goaltender Jackson Gardner in the 53rd minute.

Despite a late push by the WolfPack in the second half including a number of late saves needed by TWU goalkeeper Colyn, the Spartans prevailed 1-0.

TRU finished with just one shot on target while the Spartans had six. TWU also edged TRU in overall shots with an 11-1 advantage.

QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Mike Shearon
"We still have a lot of stuff to work on, but I thought it was a good performance by our team tonight. Our possession was way better, our defensive shape was good, and we eliminated the majority of their chances. I thought our first half was much better than the second half performance. In the second half we eventually got to the point where we just tried to close out the game and be mature, which for a young group is actually pretty impressive.

On the Spartans home fans
"The support from the fans and 'The 300' tonight was unreal. We talked before the game that we wanted a full 90-minute performance tonight from both the guys on the field and the fans, and everyone showed up, so it was fantastic."

NOTABLE
•    With the win, TWU ended their two-game losing streak to open the season.
•    The back-to-back losses to open the season was the first time they had done so since 2001, when they dropped games against UBC and Victoria.
•    The Spartans are now 7-4-1 all-time against TRU.
•    Spartans defender Cody Fransen (Lynden, Wash.) was issued a yellow card after falling in the WolfPack box in the 69th minute.

UP NEXT
The Spartans are back at it Saturday night (Sep. 7th) as they host UBC Okanagan. Kickoff for the match is 7:15 p.m. at TWU's Chase Office Field.

-TW-