CALGARY – Kelsie MacDonald scored her fourth and fifth goals of the season to lead the University of Calgary Dinos to a dominant 5-0 win over the Lethbridge Pronghorns Sunday afternoon at Dinosaur Field.
On a day where the Dinos outshot the Horns by an 18-4 margin, two goals less than three minutes apart in the first half sent the Dinos into the break up 2-0, and they went on to add three more in the final 45. Calgary's record inmproves to 5-0-1 on the season, while Lethbridge falls to 0-4-2.
Calgary peppered Lethbridge 'keeper Hannah Quinn with 13 shots on goal in the contest and finally broke through a half hour in on a set piece.
Damiane Sawatzky had the first touch from the corner kick, and
Taylor Dangerfield redirected it to the left of Quinn to break the ice with her second of the campaign.
Just two minutes later,
Montana Leonard was awarded a penalty and she made no mistake from the spot for her league-leading seventh of the season, and it was 2-0 Dinos in the 34th minute.
MacDonald scored the first of two nifty tallies in the 52nd minute, staying onside and taking a lengthy feed from
Amy Mikuska. Inside the box, MacDonald chipped it over a sprawling Quinn, corralled the loose ball, and rolled it into the open cage with the left foot. Ten minutes after that,
Damiane Sawatzky picked up her first of the season when she outraced a defender inside the box, spun, and fired it just inside the left post to make the score 4-0.
MacDonald rounded out Calgary's offensive onslaught with a brilliant individual effort from the left side of the box, making it 5-0 in the 68th minute.
Quinn made eight saves on the 13 shots she faced for Lethbridge, while Dinos 'keeper
Lauren Houghton had to make just a single save to earn her fourth clean sheet of the season.
"It was a good performance today. We wanted to go after them early because Lethbridge is organized and if you leave them hanging around too long it can be dangerous," said Dinos head coach
Troye Flannery. "
Kelsie MacDonald was flying today. And we had six freshmen on in the second half and didn't lose much from that, and those are some important minutes for them."
The Dinos embark on a lengthy road trip next weekend with visits to Thompson Rivers in Kamloops Saturday followed by UBC Okanagan in Kelowna Sunday. Lethbridge returns home to host a pair of provincial rivals next week, with MacEwan visiting Saturday followed by Alberta Sunday.
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