WSOC: Dinos claim Canada West bronze, book ticket to Quebec
November 5, 2022
VANCOUVER - The Calgary Dinos claimed the Canada West Women's Soccer bronze medal with a big 3-0 victory over the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack at Thunderbird Stadium on Saturday evening, securing their spot at next week's U SPORTS nationals in Quebec City in the process.
Rachel Barlow bagged a brace and grabbed an assist on Jayden Berg's third as Calgary kept their season alive with a strong all-round performance.
"That was a professional response from yesterday," a delighted Calgary co-head coach Diogo Raposo said after the game. "We're very young and inexperienced. We graduated nine seniors, so players are learning on the job, which is hard to do. You saw that yesterday against a great UBC team, but the response was great today. We just wanted show who we were and respect the crest on our shirt and who we are as a team."
There was little to choose between the teams in a fast paced first half, but the Dinos edged it and had the bigger goal threat, thanks in part to Erica Mysko, who was causing no end of problems to the Wolfpack defence.
Mysko had the first shot of the evening six minutes in, which Marissa Young handled well in the Wolfpack goal.
Thompson Rivers' first real chance came in the 17th minute when Camryn Curts' looping header just didn't have enough power to fully trouble Caley Leask.
The Dinos breakthrough came three minutes later when Barlow fired home from the spot after Mysko was sent crashing to the deck in the box by Allie Shiyuk, a decision which brought a yellow card to Wolfpack coach Mark Pennington.
Calgary pushed hard for a second, with Shiyuk clearing a shot off the line and Mysko coming close with a couple of chances but the Dinos had to settle for a slender one goal lead at the half.
The Wolfpack have been comeback queens in their playoff run this year and they were needing to dig deep
and launch another one to get back into this game.
That job was made all the harder six minutes after the restart when Mysko turned on the jets up the left wing, hit the byeline, and cut the ball back perfectly for Barlow to bury her second of the game.
Calgary pushed hard for a third to finally put the game to bed, but Thompson Rivers knew if they could get the next goal they'd be right back in it and they came within inches of doing so in the 69th minute when Alexis Virgo's shot just went past the far post.
The Dinos got their third in the 78th minute when Berg rose superbly to head home a Barlow corner, capping off an impressive team performance.
It was a heartbreaking end to a dynamic Wolfpack playoff run that captured the imagination and saw TRU claim their first two victories in the history of the women's program, delighting head coach Mark Pennington and giving them something to build upon heading into 2023.
"To be honest, the 120 minutes [last night] was a heartbreaker, both emotionally and physically," Pennington said after the match. "We don't have a ton of depth, as we know, and I think we just came up a bit short in the end. But I couldn't be more proud of them. I just said to them rather than being disappointed about not getting to where we wanted to get to, we should be really proud of finishing in the top four of the toughest conference in the country.
"We're still a very young program. It's kind of six and seven rookies playing games. Hopefully the only way is up for this program. I'm disappointed for the seniors not to get a kick of the can at nationals, but it's the first time they've played in playoffs, so I feel we need to celebrate this and not the initial disappointment of not getting there."
The Dinos now move on to next week's U SPORTS national championship at Université Laval in Quebec City, the Scarlet and Gold's fourth appearance in the past eight seasons.
"We've got to learn from this weekend and continue to get better from this weekend," Raposo feels. "When you get there, it's anyone's game on any day and you need a little bit of luck. You need to concentrate. But why not us? We don't want to go to nationals just to go to nationals. We want to compete, we want to do more than that."
Rachel Barlow bagged a brace and grabbed an assist on Jayden Berg's third as Calgary kept their season alive with a strong all-round performance.
"That was a professional response from yesterday," a delighted Calgary co-head coach Diogo Raposo said after the game. "We're very young and inexperienced. We graduated nine seniors, so players are learning on the job, which is hard to do. You saw that yesterday against a great UBC team, but the response was great today. We just wanted show who we were and respect the crest on our shirt and who we are as a team."
There was little to choose between the teams in a fast paced first half, but the Dinos edged it and had the bigger goal threat, thanks in part to Erica Mysko, who was causing no end of problems to the Wolfpack defence.
Mysko had the first shot of the evening six minutes in, which Marissa Young handled well in the Wolfpack goal.
Thompson Rivers' first real chance came in the 17th minute when Camryn Curts' looping header just didn't have enough power to fully trouble Caley Leask.
The Dinos breakthrough came three minutes later when Barlow fired home from the spot after Mysko was sent crashing to the deck in the box by Allie Shiyuk, a decision which brought a yellow card to Wolfpack coach Mark Pennington.
Calgary pushed hard for a second, with Shiyuk clearing a shot off the line and Mysko coming close with a couple of chances but the Dinos had to settle for a slender one goal lead at the half.
The Wolfpack have been comeback queens in their playoff run this year and they were needing to dig deep
and launch another one to get back into this game.
That job was made all the harder six minutes after the restart when Mysko turned on the jets up the left wing, hit the byeline, and cut the ball back perfectly for Barlow to bury her second of the game.
Calgary pushed hard for a third to finally put the game to bed, but Thompson Rivers knew if they could get the next goal they'd be right back in it and they came within inches of doing so in the 69th minute when Alexis Virgo's shot just went past the far post.
The Dinos got their third in the 78th minute when Berg rose superbly to head home a Barlow corner, capping off an impressive team performance.
It was a heartbreaking end to a dynamic Wolfpack playoff run that captured the imagination and saw TRU claim their first two victories in the history of the women's program, delighting head coach Mark Pennington and giving them something to build upon heading into 2023.
"To be honest, the 120 minutes [last night] was a heartbreaker, both emotionally and physically," Pennington said after the match. "We don't have a ton of depth, as we know, and I think we just came up a bit short in the end. But I couldn't be more proud of them. I just said to them rather than being disappointed about not getting to where we wanted to get to, we should be really proud of finishing in the top four of the toughest conference in the country.
"We're still a very young program. It's kind of six and seven rookies playing games. Hopefully the only way is up for this program. I'm disappointed for the seniors not to get a kick of the can at nationals, but it's the first time they've played in playoffs, so I feel we need to celebrate this and not the initial disappointment of not getting there."
The Dinos now move on to next week's U SPORTS national championship at Université Laval in Quebec City, the Scarlet and Gold's fourth appearance in the past eight seasons.
"We've got to learn from this weekend and continue to get better from this weekend," Raposo feels. "When you get there, it's anyone's game on any day and you need a little bit of luck. You need to concentrate. But why not us? We don't want to go to nationals just to go to nationals. We want to compete, we want to do more than that."