By Aneesha Birk
The Dinos men’s soccer team played two games against the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns this past weekend earning a 1-0 victory against the Horns Sat., Sept. 30 at home and suffering a 3-2 loss Sun., Oct. 1 in Lethbridge.
Second-year social sciences student Nate Heywood received a yellow card for the Dinos under the pretext of a deliberate handball call. Dinos’ fans quickly showed their disapproval of the referee’s call as earlier he had overlooked a similar situation concerning a Pronghorns player.
“The Dinos’ dedicated fans must’ve taken it to heart,” said Dinos’ head coach Andy Gibbs. “The fans wanted to know why the referee was calling one and not the other.”
Dinos second-year business student Daniel Zuniga suffered a minor injury and had to be assisted off the field, resulting in a Dinos’ free kick. Dinos forward Garret Meier claimed the goal of the game when he single-handedly scored on a breakaway starting from the Dinos’ 18-yard line.
“You have to take advantage of all your chances,” said Meier. “Lethbridge has a shorter field so we’ll have to play one-touch soccer tomorrow.”
“We need to convert [the team’s] opportunities into goals,” said Gibbs. “The team understands that they need to put up points and they are trying to do that.”
At half-time on Sunday in Lethbridge the Dinos were trailing 2-0 against the Pronghorns. In the second half the Dinos made two goals in three minutes to tie the game at 2-2. Credit goes to Dinos’ players Carlos Cruz, who’s in his fourth-year of science and second-year business student Ryan Holbrook.
The game ended with a 3-2 victory for the Pronghorns, setting the Dinos back to a 5-2-1 season. The Dinos’ will take it easy this weekend and come back revitalized to host the University of Alberta Golden Bears and the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Oct. 14-15.