CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos men's soccer team capped off a perfect final home weekend, finishing things off with a 3-0 win over the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Sunday afternoon from Dinosaur Field.
With the win, the Dinos move to 3-5-2 on the year, while the Huskies fall to 1-6-3.
"From a team perspective, this is really big for us," Calgary fifth-year goalkeeper
Liam Hunter said following his final regular season game at Dinosaur Field. "We talked on Friday night about turning a corner. We're kind of notorious for starting slow, as much as we don't like to, but then finishing strong. We talked about this is the weekend to turn that corner and six points at home is always a good thing.
"For (fellow senior) Derek (Brust) and me, our last two games on this field is a little bittersweet, but it's a good way to go out with six points, so no complaints for us."
The Dinos started the game on the front foot and broke through in the 26th minute.
Derek Brust hammered a shot from just outside the 18-yard box that was blocked, took a deflection off
Dominic Anamali and
Edomias Nesibu was there to clean things up for his first career goal.
Calgary carried that 1-0 lead into the break but doubled things up right out of the gates in the second half. After earning a free kick from the right wing,
Gianmarco Plenzik sent a beautiful cross into the box where
Soliman Aria was ready and waiting, netting his first U SPORTS goal to make it 2-0 just 90 seconds into the second half.
The Huskies had more urgency in their step after that and created a number of dangerous chances.
Diego Reveco took a free kick from the Saskatchewan right win that was bending at the right moment and looked to be headed for the back of the net, but Calgary keeper
Liam Hunter was there to punch the ball over the bar for the save.
It was Reveco again in the 87th minute on a 3-on-2 break by the Huskies, with fourth-year from Winnipeg hammering another ball destined for the far post, but Hunter once again was able to punch the ball clear to keep the visitors off the board.
Calgary added an insurance goal as
Dominic Anamali netted his second in as many days on an eerily similar moment as the day before. The speedster jumped on a misplayed back pass and immediately capitalized in a one-on-one with the keeper, making it 3-0 and eliminating any thoughts of a comeback in this one.
Hunter finished the day with eight saves for his second consecutive shutout and the third of his career.
Up next, the Dinos start their four-game road trip to close out the regular season, starting with a rematch with the Huskies in Saskatchewan on Saturday, Oct. 7 for a game that was originally scheduled for Sept. 1 but was postponed due to air quality.
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