Dinos women’s soccer team ranks No. 2 as they prepare to host the Quarter Finals at home
By Tori Taylor, October 22 2019 —
The Dinos women’s soccer team has been on a fire-streak in their Canada West matches with only a single loss in the season so far. Game after game, the team has shown dominant defense and cohesive offense against every team they’ve come up against.
The titles of every game recap since the start of the season display the growing momentum and success.
Starting with their first game against the University of British Columbia Okanagan Heat on Sept. 5, Dinos fired off a 5–0 win. Kelsie MacDonald broke both the game’s and season’s seal with her first goal. Less than two minutes later, Montana Leonard followed suit with a second. The floodgates were opened. Both Leonard and MacDonald scored one more goal and Amy Mikuska wrapped up the game with one of her own. This game set the tone for what has now been a fiery season.
The Dinos next game proved more head-to-head with Thompson Rivers University. The match settled in a 1–1 finish.
The first 45 minutes remained 1–0 for The Wolfpack. Near the 68 minute mark in the second half of the game, MacDonald settled the score.
“They deserved that 1-0 lead after the first half,” said Calgary head coach Troye Flannery after the game, “but I thought the second half was us. We were unfortunate not to have a couple of goals today.”
Momentum remained strong as the women’s soccer team dominated a 4–0 shut-out against the University of Regina Cougars, on Sept 14. Dangerfield, Leonard and Mikuska all scored goals — Leonard had two goals.
The University of Saskatchewan Huskies gave the Dinos a run for their money with a tight score of 2–1. The Dinos scored the winning goal with less than a minute left thanks to a fast-footed breakaway run by Alison Pedersen. Pedersen had also opened the game with the first goal — scoring the first two goals of her season and the only Dino goals of the game.
Dinos offence united as a mighty force in their game against the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns. The Dinos outshot Lethbridge 18–4 in total and nailed two goals in less than three minute apart within the first half of the game. MacDonald scored two goals. Damiane Sawatzky sunk her first goal of the season in an aggressive sprint to the net. Leonard and Dangerfield each contributed a goal in the second half.
Calgary went up against the Trinity West Spartans before Thanksgiving weekend — ranked as the number one team. The Dinos, ranked number six, held their own and pulled through with a 2–1 win. MacDonald was the first to light up the scoreboard with a controversial goal. It was contested by Trinity West as offside, but was ruled legal.
“I wasn’t particularly thrilled about our first half,” coach Troye Flannery told Justin Mackenzie with Dinos Communication. “In the second half we turned it up a notch and really put our foot down.”
In the second half, the Dinos powered through and led an offensive charge. Within the last 45 minutes of the game, three of their four shots were fired at the Spartans keeper. As the game came to an end, MacDonald was clobbered in the box and a penalty kick was awarded. Amy Mikuska perfectly placed the penalty kick directly into the top right corner of the net.
Over this last weekend, Calgary faced the Thunderbirds in Vancouver. Both teams went into the match with strong offensive streaks — but slightly less than ideal defensive records. The Dinos fought hard. Although Dinos’ lead scorer Leonard had a strong shot on net during the first half — the score remained at 0–0 by the halftime buzzer. MacDonald fired a strong kick at UBC keeper Emily Moore in the middle of the second half but Moore did not give up the stand-off. The game wrapped up with an aggressively fought tie.
On Sunday, the winning-streak came to an end against the Victoria Vikes in a 2–1 loss for the Dinos. The Dinos had three corners in a row during the end of the match. Sydney Gummerson sent the promising ball on the third corner from Mikuska. But Vikes keeper Puck Louwes shone in a four-save show and did not give up control of her net.
The Dinos are now finishing as No. 2 in their division with a 10–1–3 standing. This means they will be taking a well-deserved bye in the quarter-finals — which are being hosted on Dinosaur Field this weekend.