VANCOUVER – The Calgary Dinos earned a place in Sunday's Canada West Men's Soccer gold medal match with a hard fought 1-0 extra time victory over their city rival Mount Royal Cougars in a playoff version of the Crowchild Classic at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver on Saturday afternoon. 

Decklin Mahmi was the hero for the Dinos, firing home the only goal of the game in the 109th minute to set up a showdown with either the hosting UBC Thunderbirds or the Alberta Golden Bears, and handing Mount Royal their first defeat of the season.
 
"It was always going to be tight from the minute we knew we were drawn against MRU," said Dinos assistant coach Kevin Francis. "For us as a team, our belief is growing and it's really started to grow in the last four or five games. We need to take that belief a little bit earlier. It's always tough against MRU, they're a very good side, so we kind of nullified each other a little bit at the beginning. But if we keep doing what we do best, keep possession and be patient, we'll come through."
 
It was a cagey affair from the start with the first half devoid of anything of real note and any clear cut chances for either side.
 
Mount Royal came out with more intensity to start the second and David Schaefer had the first real chance of the game with a free kick that was tipped over by Calgary keeper Jake Ruschkowski. The Dinos keeper was called into action again 11 minutes later, keeping out an Ethan Keen effort, after some nice footwork inside the box from the Cougars player to set up the chance.
 
Mahmi had the ball in the net for the Dinos in the 80th minute, but the flag was quickly up for offside as he headed home a great cross.
 
The game headed to extra time, with all the action saved for the last 15 minutes.
 
Mahmi grabbed the match winner in the 109th minute with a close range, one-time finish from a cut-back feed from Kundai Dziwa, to cue rapturous celebrations from the travelling support.
 
Both teams finished the match with ten men after a pair of late sending offs, James Greco-Taylor for Calgary for a second yellow and Alex Kemsley for Mount Royal for a straight red.
 
The Cougars now head into Sunday's bronze medal match up, with the dreams of the nationals extinguished. Calgary's young side now play for gold and the conference's only spot later that afternoon.
 
"We knew that every game was going to be hard with what's at stake with just one spot being up for grabs," Francis said. "We believe in our youth, that's why we play them. For these boys going forward, it bodes well for the future for us. If they can get themselves into situations like this and rise from it and come out as better players and men, for us, with our senior players who have been there before, they can drag the young boys through and they're paying attention and they're doing well."

-UC-