CALGARY – The Prairie Division belongs to the University of Calgary Dinos women's soccer team in 2024.

Calgary's four unanswered goals in the second half powered them to a dominant 5-1 win over the Alberta Pandas on Saturday at Dinosaur Field.

In addition to a 1-1 draw between the MacEwan Griffins and Lethbridge Pronghorns, the victory secured first place for the Dinos in the Canada West's Prairie Division. The Dinos will host a Canada West quarter-final on Friday, Oct. 25.

Calgary's record sits at 11-1-1 with one game remaining, while the Pandas slip to 6-5-2.

The scoring started with Isabella Burtini getting the first goal for the Dinos five minutes into the game. The Pandas quickly responded with a goal in the 14th minute to tie the game. Calgary out-chanced Alberta considerably in the opening 45 minutes but managed just two shots on goal.

"Putting the game away earlier would've made things a lot more simpler for us," commented Dinos head coach Diogo Raposo. "We want to play good football, and sometimes that comes with a transition for the opponent and they get some opportunities that maybe we don't think they deserved."

Simply put, the Dinos came out as a completely different team during the second half. Isabella DiPalma scored to get the 2-1 lead, followed by Burtini getting her second of the game to make it 3-1. Not long after, rookie Rowyn James added another to put the Dinos in complete control.

The cherry on top would be Layla Tarraf scoring to make it 5-1 Dinos. Persistence was paying off, and the team clearly took what Raposo preached during halftime to heart. 

"We made sure we had good resiliency and stuck to the game plan. Our subs were also good. We believe that we're a very deep team, so they came on and made an impact," said the Calgary bench boss.

The Dinos will close out the regular season on Sunday at home when they take on MacEwan in another 12 p.m. start. The Pandas will travel to Lethbridge on Sunday for their final game.

-UC-