CALGARY – Coming off a convincing road win in the Canada West Quarter-final, the University of Calgary Dinos men's soccer team continues its playoff run this weekend at the CW Final Four, hosted by UBC in Vancouver.
 
The Dinos will kick off this year's Final Four with a third instalment of the Crowchild Classic, taking on in-town rival Mount Royal Saturday at 12 p.m. MT. The other side of the bracket will see host UBC take on Alberta.
 
The winners of Saturday's contests will square off Sunday at 2:30 p.m. MT with Canada West's lone at-large berth to nationals on the line. The bronze-medal game will kick off just before that at noon MT.
 
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW
 
1. How We Got Here – Calgary finished the regular season with a 6-5-3 conference record, good for third in the CW Prairie Division. The Dinos then opened the postseason with a 2-1 road win over Thompson Rivers last Friday.
 
2. Matchup History – The Dinos have plenty of history with their inner-city rival, owning a 10-5-6 head-to-head record with Mount Royal since they joined the Canada West ranks. This season, the Cougars have claimed both regular-season contests – a 2-1 win at MRU on Sept. 3 and a 1-0 result at Dinosaur Field to open the month of October.
 
The two teams have met in the postseason once before – ironically also a semifinal showdown from Vancouver back in 2019. Derek Brust scored the opening goal of that one before the Dinos scored on a penalty kick in the 78th minute to clinch a 2-1 win over the Cougars and earn a trip not only to the CW Championship but also to that season's national tournament.
 
3. Postseason History – While the Dinos have plenty of postseason success in the Canada West Playoffs, they will be looking for just their second conference title in program history and the first since 1980. Calgary played in the gold-medal game as recently as 2019 and advanced to the U SPORTS National Championships after claiming CW silver.
 
4. Peaking At The Right Time – After a slower start to the season that saw the Dinos go 1-2-2 out of the gates, Calgary has really started clicking down the stretch, entering Saturday's game on a four-game win streak. The offence has certainly been a strong point of late, as well, for the Dinos. This year's squad finished the regular season ranked tied for fourth in all of Canada West with 23 goals scored on the season – 11 of which have come in the last two weeks of the conference season.
 
5. All-Star Status – Eryk Kobza and William Omoreniye were both named Canada West All-Stars last week. Kobza was named to the conference's second team after finishing the regular season with three goals and three assists, while all-rookie Omoreniye led this year's team with four regular-season goals and was tied for the team lead with three assists.