Men’s Soccer returned home for their home opener after opening the 2024 season last weekend in Calgary, dropping two straight to the Dinos and Mount Royal. Saskatchewan had their chances throughout the course of the game, but at times couldn’t find the net or get one past the Golden Bears goaltender as Liam Collens shut the door with Alberta rolling to a 4-0 victory.
FULL RECAP BELOW
**********
Friday’s home opener started off with a little bit of rain, but both teams didn’t let that get in the way with Alberta coming close to opening the scoring nine minutes in with David Chung just missing wide left, followed by the first shot of the game courtesy of Daler Tokhirov with an easy save for Golden Bears goalie Liam Collens.
At the 20-minute mark, Ethan Cabral caught a pass to move in untouched looking like the first good scoring chance of the game, but just before pulling the trigger the play was blown offside, leaving the Huskies in shock and of course, unhappy. A few minutes later, Daivd Chung would find himself in front of the Huskies net with another great chance, this time firing it wide right. Alberta opened the scoring at the 35-minute mark with a long pass connecting with Habib Assem getting the first shot off and grabbing his own rebound to give the Golden Bears a 1-0 lead. The goal seemed to give Alberta a bit of a momentum boost continuing to control the play as Rilind Idrizi came inches close to increase their lead with his shot beating Huskies goaltender Jaron Slopinski, but hitting the right post square on. Alberta led Saskatchewan in shots 5-4, but Saskatchewan led with shots on goal 2-1 at the half, down 1-0.
The second half started with no rain this time around with Saskatchewan getting the first good scoring chance after a couple slow opening minutes. Ilyich Gharahmadani had a chance at the 54-minute mark after deking out a few defenders only to put his shot wide left. Huskies goaltender Jaron Slopinski only faced one shot on goal in the first, which happened to be the opening goal but made his first save at the 56-minute mark off David Chung trying to setup a teammate in front. Saskatchewan would come close again just shy of the 63-minute mark with a scramble in front of the Golden Bears as Robert Woodroffe-Brown would quickly get ahold of the ball for a shot on net but Liam Collens making an easy save. Moments later Woodroffe-Brown would have another chance but put it high over the net.
Alberta would extend their lead at the 68-minute mark as Jake Bosch weaved his way through some Huskie defenders and set up Rilind Idrizi all alone in front for a perfect shot going high above Jaron Slopinski to make it 2-0. Saskatchewan would begin to claw their way back with two great chances shortly after back-to-back from Ethan Cabral and Robert Woodroffe-Brown, both just coming up short.
Saskatchewan continued to fight back but unfortunately couldn’t find the net or get any shots through. Alberta extended their lead even further as Eric Normandeau would have a two shots blocked by Huskie defenders with the third attempt finding Frankroy Cain making no mistake and firing home Alberta’s third goal of the game past Jaron Slopinski. Shortly after on a corner kick by Eric Normandeau, Caden Ruby would connect on his pass and fire in another one past Slopinski making it 4-0 as Alberta picked up their first win in their first game of the season.
Saskatchewan is back on Sunday at home as they welcome the MacEwan Griffins with that game set for a 2:00 start from Griffiths Stadium.
**********
Head Coach Bryce Chapman:
GAME STATS – TEAM
Shots: Alberta 15-9 Saskatchewan
Shots on Goal: Alberta 5-3 Saskatchewan
Saves: Alberta 3-1 Saskatchewan
Corners: Alberta 4-2 Saskatchewan
Offsides Alberta 1-3 Saskatchewan
Fouls Alberta 13-9 Saskatchewan
GAME STATS – PLAYER
Robert Woodroffe-Brown (4 Shots, 2 Shots on Goal)
Daler Tokhirov (1 Shot, 1 Shot on Goal)
Jaron Slopinski (5 Shots on Goal, 1 Save)
NEXT GAME: vs. MacEwan Griffins (0-1) on Sunday, September 1st at 2:00 p.m.
