Women’s Soccer: The fall push for the playoffs

By Sean Nyilassy

Having succeeded in the turkey shoot during their Thanksgiving bye and gobbling down the resulting carcass, the Dinos women’s soccer team has developed a taste for hunting. The next logical chapter in any hunter’s instruction manual is to hunt the elusive panda. The Dinos, however, took it one step farther, stalking a species of panda from a zoo in Edmonton called the University of Alberta on Sat., Oct. 14. The game finished 0-0.

“We wanted to beat them,” said Katie Blundell following the game. “They’re in second place [in the Canada West conference], it would be very good for us.”

Right from the get-go, both teams were on the ball like grass on a field. The first half was as equal an opportunity as the unions could ask. The Pandas managed eight shots to the Dinos’ seven in the first 45 minutes.

“If one team had scored [early on], the game would have been different,” Blundell commented. “The other team could’ve let down and given them the game or fought harder to come back.”

As both teams began to tire in the second half frustrations with the ref’s calls began to emerge. As the ball was, once again, pointed in the direction of the Dinos’ net after bouncing over the sideline, the eloquent phrase, “fuckin’ brutal,” quietly found its way from the field into a few spectators’ ears.

A few free kicks in the dying minutes would create the teams’ final chances to score, but with a Dinos’ kick towards the end finally being cleared, the chances were through and the game completed.

“All in all it was a better effort,” Dinos head coach Robin Slot said of the game. “We played well for the full 90 minutes.”

“It’s one of the best games we’ve played,” rookie Morena Ianniello agreed.

Despite drawing such a hard-fought game, the Dinos focused their attention on their next challenge: the University of Saskatchewan Huskies on Sun., Oct. 15.

“Every game is very important,” Slot said about Sunday’s game. “We’re not taking them lightly.”

And focus they did–like a beam of sunlight through a magnifying glass and onto an ant. By the halfway point of the game, the Dinos had amassed a 4-0 lead. The carnage didn’t stop there; the Dinos added two goals in the second half.

Although not quite as exciting for the crowd as the previous day’s nail-biting draw, the points from the 6-0 win put the Dinos a big step closer to a CW playoff spot.

Two home games remain before the post season. Oct. 21-22, the Dinos face off against the University College of Fraser Valley Cascades and Trinity Western University Spartans. Both games begin at noon on the West Varsity Soccer Pitch and are free for students.