Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – If anything, the loss the Griffins women's soccer team sustained to the Calgary Dinos back on Sept. 12 – the only blemish on MacEwan's sterling 9-1-0 record this season – was exactly the wakeup call they needed.
The squad has been dominant and perfect since, rattling off eight-straight wins to overtake the Dinos (8-1-1) for top spot in the Central Division.
Now, it all comes down to this weekend when the two rivals meet twice to close out the regular season – Saturday and Sunday (both 12 p.m., Canada West TV presented by Co-op) – in a showdown for first place in Canada West's Central Division.
"That was a wakeup call for us in terms of how we were doing things on set pieces," said Griffins head coach Dean Cordeiro. "I didn't mind our game in the run of play. We were fine. We created a lot of chances and were unlucky not to score a couple times.
"Where we had a lapse was on set pieces. Since then – and it was a blessing that we were able to work on those things early – we've been very solid in that department and, in fact, have scored quite a bit and conceded very little on set pieces."
Since then, the Griffins have been as hot as anyone in the U SPORTS ranks and enter the Calgary series rolling on all cylinders after sweeping Lethbridge and outscoring them 12-0 in a pair of games last weekend.
If they can manage to win a minimum of one of the two matches against the Dinos, they will finish first and host an opening-round playoff game against the third seed from the Pacific Division (a tight race between UFV and Victoria, who are tied with 4-4-2 records). Whoever finishes second has to hit the road for a meeting with the top seed in the East Division (currently 6-1-3 Saskatchewan).
Despite the stakes, Cordeiro noted the Griffins will be treating this weekend just like any other one and preparing the same way.
"We're in good form right now," said Cordeiro. "Nothing changes. We're going to treat it like any other game and we're going to go out there and do what we do well.
"Like I said from Day 1, if we play our game, we're confident we're going to get the results that we're looking for."
