By Tanya DeLyzer and Amanda VanSteelandt
This past weekend played out like a daytime soap opera for the Dinos men’s soccer team. Their first regular season game, on Sat., Sept. 18 against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, was entertaining and full of drama with bad acting from the Huskies that wouldn’t even win a “Soapie” award.
Huskies’ keeper Jonathon Neufeld was their saving grace. After a scoreless first half, the Huskies crawled off the field like they’d been on a bender.
In the second half, the Dinos were establishing squatter’s rights in the Huskies’ end, although the Huskies did manage to steal a few breaks. On one such occasion Kashmir Bahia scored for the Huskies. The favour was quickly returned by Jose “Luis” Morales with a nice goal for the Dinos. Adam “A-Mac” MacDonald put them out of their misery, to give a final score of 2-1 for the soccersaurs.
Dinos keeper Rick Urbanczyk said, “It feels good to win on the new field.”
Head Coach Andy Gibbs was more hesitant in his analysis.
“[We played] competitively, not bad, but too many chances [were] given up.”
We heartily agree.
The game Sun., Sept. 19 against the University of Alberta Golden Bears was a wild ride. There seemed to be confusion in the Dinos ranks about defensive coverage, allowing Jon Konye of U of A to slip through and score twice in the first half.
The second half was full of action. Another goal was scored for U of A by Jarin Myskiw. Urbanczyk tripped Konye in the box on another of his breakaways; he then saved the resulting penalty kick taken by Mark Korthuis of U of A.
Lots of cussin’ and fussin’ about fouls could be heard on the field. One call by the referee was followed by an altercation between several players in the middle of the field. Soon after, MacDonald stole a header from a defender back to U of A’s keeper to score for the Dinos.
In the stoppage minutes added to the end of the game, the Dinos had a miracle comeback with two eerily similar goals from Jonathan Remmer. The first was a header off a free kick near the corner in the 91st minute. The second came right after, a header off a corner kick. Deja-vu. The final score was 3-3.
Gibbs said that the team “shouldn’t have been down 3-0,” but “[they showed] tremendous character” with the comeback. It must be the effect of the new co-captains, Andrew “Diggler” Zakaluzny, Jonathan Remmer and Jose “Luis” Morales, who all played superbly this weekend.