EDMONTON – The University of Calgary Dinos men's soccer team built an early three-goal cushion and held on for a 4-3 win over the MacEwan Griffins on Sunday at Clarke Stadium, surviving a second-half rally that pulled the hosts within one goal down the stretch.
The win improves Calgary to 2-1-0 on the season, while MacEwan fell to 0-2-0. It also marked a quick response for the Dinos, who bounced back from a 3-0 defeat to Alberta just a day earlier.
Calgary struck three times inside the first 21 minutes.
Jacob Hunter opened the scoring in the fifth minute, heading home a
William Omoreniye corner kick.
Josiah Walter doubled the lead five minutes later, striking from distance with a shot that got a piece of David Sithole but still found the net.
Josral Frederick made it 3-0 in the 21st minute after Walter cut into the middle of the field and threaded a pass between two Griffins defenders to set him up. MacEwan got one back in first-half stoppage time when Ali Yildiz rifled a free kick into the top corner, trimming the deficit to 3-1 at the break.
The Griffins kept pushing after the interval, cutting the margin to 3-2 in the 58th minute when Macky Mahfouz ran onto a forward ball from Doruk Yilmaz and beat an aggressive
Oliver Allen to the loose ball.
MacEwan was reduced to 10 men in the 63rd minute, but the Dinos couldn't fully close the door.
Omoreniye restored a two-goal cushion in the 77th minute, running onto a long ball forward and walking in alone on Sithole to make it 4-2, before Mahfouz completed his brace three minutes later by heading home an Ali Yildiz corner kick to pull MacEwan back within one at 4-3.
Calgary managed the final 10 minutes to close out the win.
Allen made three saves for the win, while Sithole stopped three shots in the loss.
Calgary held a narrow 13-12 edge in shots for the match.
The Dinos will return to action Saturday, Sept. 12, when they host the Lethbridge Pronghorns at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at GoDinos.com/Tickets.
MacEwan will travel to face the Saskatchewan Huskies on Friday, Sept. 11.
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