CALGARY – When the Battle of Alberta is in town, fans are always in for a great game. That was exactly the case Sunday at Dinosaur Field as the Calgary Dinos and the Alberta Golden Bears men's soccer teams battled to a 1-1 draw.
With just two games left to play for each team, Alberta remains in the driver's seat in the Canada West Prairie Division with an 8-1-3 record. The Dinos sit one spot back at 6-1-5, wrapping their home slate undefeated after finishing the regular season 3-0-4 at Dinosaur Field.
Despite a spirited first half by both squads, things remained scoreless after the first 45 minutes.
That quickly changed in the second half, however, as
Gianmarco Plenzik converted a penalty kick just three minutes after the break for his fifth of the year to give Calgary the 1-0 lead.
Carrying the momentum from that goal, the Dinos dominated possession. It looked as though Calgary would make it 2-0 in the 58th minute after earning another PK, but Alberta keeper Liam Collens came up big with one of his two saves on the day to keep the Bears in striking distance.
Moments later,
Owen Antoniuk ripped one that beat Collens but pinged off the crossbar.
The game seemed to shift toward Alberta down the stretch. Jake Bosch fired a shot in the box the looked destined for the back of the net, only to see
William Omoreniye come up with a big block.
Just a few minutes later, however, Marcus Velado-Tsegaye would leave no doubt. He got on the end of a pass from Rilind Idrizi and hammered the ball home to tie things up at 1-1 in the 83rd minute.
The Dinos outshot the Bears 12-9 in this one, though Alberta finished with a 5-3 edge in shots on goal.
Hany Shafie once again played a big role in net for Calgary, finishing with four saves on the day.
Calgary is on bye next weekend and doesn't return to the pitch until Oct. 18 with a trip to Lethbridge to start their final roadtrip of the year. Meanwhile, the Bears stay in Edmonton for their final two contests, taking on MacEwan once each of the next two weekends to close out the regular season.
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