BOX SCORE EDMONTON - After playing their hearts out for 120 minutes and 11 rounds of penalty kicks, the University of Calgary Dinos' season came to a cruel end Friday afternoon with a 3-2 (9-8 PKs) loss to the Trinity Western Spartans in the Canada West quarterfinal.

The long and winding win sends the Spartans to the door of the semi-finals where they will meet the Canada West hosts, the University of Alberta Golden Bears, on Saturday at 12:15 pm MT. Calgary, meanwhile, has their season come to an end following the shoot-out loss.

"Congratulations to Trinity on a well-played game today," said Calgary head coach Brian McDonnell. "It's never easy losing a game in penalties, but one thing I am certain of is the heart, passion, and fight our players displayed today. I am very proud to be the coach of these student-athletes and I look forward to working with a great young core that I believe will only get better in the years to come."

Twice the Spartans held leads on Calgary, and twice the Dinos came back to level the score. That pattern continued from the penalty spot as well, as TWU shot first forcing Calgary to match every goal they scored, or do better than every miss they recorded. The Dinos did just that through 12 shooters, including goalies, but in the end, at sudden death, Spartans goalie Evan Lother made a diving stop, low and to his right, to stop Calgary once and for all, and send TWU through to the semi-finals.

Trinity Western got goals from 2nd team Canada West All-Star Jarvis Ambaka, as well as Kalem Scott, while Calgary's John Troncoso and conference 2nd team All-Star Izak Lawrence replied for the Dinos.

Ambaka, who is originally from Kenya, opened the scoring in the seventh minute when he converted a feed from Spencer Schmidt.

Troncoso levelled the score in the 32nd minute when he one-touched a cross from Kieran Oppenheim past Lother.

That lead lasted all of two minutes as Scott restored Trinity's advantage when he buried the ball beyond the reach of Calgary 'keeper Jordan Unreiner in the 34th minute.

The 2-1 score line held into half-time and beyond, and it seemed as though the Spartans were going to cling to that score and move off into the semi-finals. But, in the 80th minute, Dinos leading scorer Izak Lawrence was fouled inside the Spartans' 18-yard box and awarded a penalty kick. The fourth-year striker, who previously played for the Dalhousie Tigers, converted his opportunity to tie the score, and send the teams to extra time.

Nothing was settled in the two 15 minute OT periods, so the teams had to settle things from the penalty spot.

The first five shooters from each side all scored, but after that the 'keepers started making saves, and players from both sides also began hitting the posts, and sailing balls over, and wide of the net. After both Lother and Unreiner coolly scored from the spot, and both to the bottom left, the top of the line-up started shooting again, and after Trinity scored, Lother made the game winning save to help Trinity win 9-8 in the shoot-out and 3-2 on the scoreboard.

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