Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – After an early disallowed goal, the MacEwan Griffins men's soccer team fell victim to two late bad breaks, suffering a 2-0 loss to the Lethbridge Pronghorns in their Canada West season opener on Friday.
With the game tied 0-0 and seemingly headed to a deserved draw between evenly-matched opponents, Lethbridge played in a harmless cross in the 76th minute that bounced off two heads and into the left side of the net – a game-winner by super sub Simon Rolfson.
With the Griffins pressing for the equalizer in the 86th, the ball was played back to goalkeeper Oleksandr Popravka, but Noah Bilodeau blocked his pass and put it into the empty cage.
"It's kind of just one of those things," said Griffins head coach Adam Loga. "Sometimes everything goes right and it did for them. (On the winner), the ball was whipped in back stick. T-Boy (Fayia) had his guy and it was just a weak head back into the mix for them, then a weak head back onto goal and it just kind of pinballed around a little bit and found the back of the net.
"It looked like a nothing play, but sometimes bounces go your way and sometimes they don't."
With the result, the Pronghorns improve to 1-0-2, while the Griffins drop to 0-1-0.
MacEwan thought they'd opened the scoring just 5:28 into the contest when Ali Yildiz's perfectly-placed free kick found the boot of Lucio Rivera on the back post and he buried it. But as they celebrated, the dreadful tone of the official's whistle sounded.
The Griffins' best chance of the game was called back on an offside.
"We have to obviously bury opportunities," said Loga. "That's footie. We scored early and it was pretty unlucky that it was disallowed. But it is what it is.
"We're not going to get any favours down here, especially on the road in a place like Lethbridge. So, we've got to find a way to push through that and stay switched on and just find a way to win."
The Griffins didn't have much go their way as they were booked for three yellow cards after arguing tackles before Rakan Yassin was shown a red for his part in a post-game fracas where both teams had to be separated. Lethbridge received no cards in the contest.
Yildiz, who went the full 90 for MacEwan, registering one shot, was given Team MVP honours.
Popravka made four saves in his Canada West debut, including robbing Carson Moore on a point-blank chance in the 52ndminute.
Introducing Oleksandr Popravka! pic.twitter.com/4DjEYWXepH
— MacEwan Griffins Men's Soccer (@GriffinsMSOC) August 30, 2024
Next up for the Griffins is a road trip to Saskatoon to face the Saskatchewan Huskies (0-2-0) on Sunday (2 p.m., Canada West TV).
"We just have to be more clinical and have more quality around goal, and all over the park," said Loga. "It's Game 1. We're not necessarily fully in sync yet. Not saying every other team in the league is either, but we just have to be patient as we know it will come.
"For the most part, the guys were pushing. I think there is another level. I think there's more fight in them. Lethbridge is a tough place to play. It always has been and it always will be. It's a tough road trip.
"The biggest message is we have to get points," he continued. "We had an opportunity to at least get one today and were very hard done by to not get that one point."
