A cold day in Hell

By Russ Dyck

Some people always cheer for the underdog, but even they wouldn’t put money on the University of Regina’s women’s soccer team winning a game against any other Canada West squad.


Why not, you might ask yourself? How about Regina finishing with 1-11-2 last season and holding an 0-8-2 record with a -49 goal differential going into Sun., Oct. 12’s game. Looking over every match between Calgary and Regina before Sunday, the disparity is obvious. Goals for Regina, 1. Goals against Regina, 26. Any way you look at it, the lady soccersaurs are a far better team. Hell, even the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns beat Regina 5-0 this year. So, after looking at all the stats, sit back, take a moment to think it over.


Done? Good.


Now figure out how the Dinos managed to lose 2-1 in Sunday’s match. You can’t? Well, neither can I. I’m just glad I was at home, sick in bed, so I didn’t witness it first hand.


Sunday’s debacle was only one of the two games between the Dinos and Cougars over this past weekend, however. The game preceding the atrocity was nothing unusual. Our soccersaurs defeated the Cougars 5-0, even with goalkeeper Charlotte Sullivan sitting the match out due to illness.


Striker Stephanie Hoogveld didn’t let a ball past her while playing in net for the first half, Jessica Horning and Danielle Harris each scored a goal, Cathy Alcock added two more and Kara Sturk both netted a goal in the first half and notched a shutout in the second. They played a decent game, ending up with a decent score.


And now, on to Sunday.


Two years ago, a former Gauntlet editor invented a new word to describe the two weekend victories, a combined 15-0 in favour of the women soccersaurs, over the Cougars–deatholition. It combines death and demolition and explains what ordinary words can’t. Perhaps the Cougars knew a word was created mocking their sorry excuse for a CIS soccer team and waited for the best possible time for them to exact revenge.


Either that, or the Dinos just didn’t play well.


The Cougars came out hard and fast, after a night of sleeping on the defeat the Dinos handed them the day before. They scored two goals in the first half with the soccersaurs leading scorer, Hoogveld, between the pipes. Hoogveld and Sturk split goaltending duties yet again as Sullivan was still sidelined. Through the first half of play, the Dinos played in state of disbelief, wondering how the Cougars came out playing so fierce.


"We just didn’t show up for the first half of the game," Hoogveld stated following Tuesday’s practice. "It’s really disappointing we couldn’t score when we needed to."


Like many other games this year, the second half was a completely different story. The Dinos dominated the field like they should have the entire game, but only came out with a single goal from Megan Dourado.


"Sunday was a game of two separate halves," explained Christa Cairns. "We did not deserve to win the first half and by the time we put our effort into the second half it was too late."


Hoogveld took it a step further.


"It’s too bad we sunk our reputation in one game," the solemn striker reflected. "On a positive note, I think it will lead to success in years to come. We all know what it takes to win and we just found out how easy it is to lose."


Sunday’s loss makes it all but impossible for the women soccersaurs to make Canada West playoffs in Lethbridge. Their remaining four games of the season–a pair against Trinity Western University and road tilts against the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria–are for winning back lost pride.


"We need to try to come up with four wins for the rest of the season, but it’s mostly pride games now since we’re counting on teams to lose to make playoffs," explained a dejected Dourado.