BOX SCORE VICTORIA – The University of Calgary Dinos women's soccer team rode two goals in the first half to a 3-0 victory over the UNBC Timberwolves in a Canada West play-in game, taking place at Centennial Stadium Friday
"It feels pretty good, we knew it would be tough and we knew UNBC would be organized and really difficult to break down," said Dinos head coach
Troye Flannery. "They are exceptionally well-coached and one of our keys was being patient and taking our chances and we did that today."
Maddison Fritze,
Sienna Prince-McPherson and
Kelsie MacDonald scored the goals for the Dinos.
Lauren Houghton recorded two saves to pick up the shutout while Brooke Molby of the T-Wolves made five saves in the loss
With the win, the Dinos move on to the Canada West Quarter-finals where they will face the host UVic Vikes at Centennial Stadium on Oct. 29. That game is scheduled for a 3 p.m. MT start and can be watched live on CanadaWest.tv
The Dinos began to take control of the game almost immediately after the opening whistle.
Just five minutes into the game, Fritze came close to opening the scoring for the Dinos but Rhianne Ferdinandi bravely blocked the shot by throwing her body in front of the ball.
After multiple corner kicks and scoring opportunities in the opening minutes, the Dinos finally made their pressure pay off when
Kelsie MacDonald jumped on a loose pass by the Timberwolves defence before playing the ball to Fritze, who made no mistake in powering the ball past Molby.
"At the beginning of the season we had Maddy Fritze pegged to play fullback for us and due to some injuries we moved her back up top," said Flannery. "She is a great kid and deserves every bit of success and applause coming her way."
The Timberwolves did well to work their way back into the game after allowing the opening goal and appeared to be heading into the halftime break down by just one before the Dinos struck again.
Just seconds before halftime Fritze dribbled her way past multiple UNBC defenders before laying the ball off to Prince-McPherson who spun with the pass and fired the ball into the net.
The final goal of the game came just ten minutes into the second half when the Dinos put the game beyond the reach of the T-Wolves.
A dangerous ball was played into the 18-yard box by
Montana Leonard and MacDonald pounced on the rebound to make the score 3-0.
Molby performed heroics in the T-Wolves net throughout the rest of the match to keep the game close.
The first-year goalkeeper robbed
Maiya Lee on a breakaway in the 61st minute before stoning both
Kayla Kreutzer and Lee again in the 75th minute.
There was absolutely no quit from the Timberwolves throughout the game and with the Dinos resting many of their starters in anticipation of their Quarter-final match on Sunday, UNBC had their best chances to score late in the game.
"Part of our DNA is that we work hard, we have to work hard to have success and today we faced a really tough Calgary team that have good athletes and are well organized," said Sedgwick. "I'm proud of the girls and the way they continued to play and compete right until the end."
Sidney Roy hit a beautiful volley in the 84th minute of play but her shot clanged off the crossbar and away from danger as the Dinos would hold on for the 3-0 victory.
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