Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Grace Mwasalla cut through the heart of the Calgary defence and scored her third goal of the weekend in the 72nd minute to deliver a 1-0 victory for the Griffins on Sunday.
The second-year attacker, who also scored twice in MacEwan's 3-0 win over UNBC on Saturday, helped cap off a terrific six-point weekend for the defending U SPORTS champions that moves them into top spot in the Canada West Prairie Division at 4-2-0.
"Grace is a big-time player and in big-time games she steps up and we saw that today," said Griffins head coach Dean Cordeiro.
After the goal, the Griffins withstood a solid flurry of pressure from the Dinos, whose best chance came in extra time – a Jaden Tomaszewski blast that Breanna Truscott laid out to stop. But seven minutes of extra time came to an end with the Griffins on top.
It's MacEwan's first-ever home win over the Dinos since they joined Canada West in 2014, but it's their second-straight triumph over them after beating Calgary in the 2021 regular season finale in #YYC.
"We're a great team and we knew it was going to be a battle out there with our provincial rivals," said Cordeiro. "There's a lot of history, we've had a lot of battles over the years. It's a little bit different this year with them being in the other division.
"We knew what was at stake – we wanted to secure the six-point weekend and start getting some separation on the table. Our girls stepped up, we stuck to the game plan. We've been working hard. We knew we would have more in the tank in that second half and I thought we completely took over the game."
Indeed, MacEwan had been building towards the winning goal for most of the second half with several chances and offensive pressure. But they just couldn't get enough on their shots to truly challenge Calgary goalkeeper Caley Leask.
In the 69th minute, however, Leask had to be bailed out by her defender as former Griffin Sofia DiGiacomo stopped Mariah Arnott's shot on the line.
Then, Mwasalla was played in by Hannah Supina for the winner.
"I think our message is together as always, just like last year," said Griffins defender Abbey Wright, who was named player of the game. "But we needed to hunt the ball together and do everything together and it paid off eventually."
Grace Schimpf tries to get past a Calgary defender on Sunday (Jefferson Hagen photo).
Wright was at the forefront of a physical Griffins defence that had to stand up a relentless Calgary attack. But between her and fellow centre-back Kiann Bohnert, they kept the Dinos at bay.
"Abbey Wright is just a rock in the back for us," said Cordeiro. "And I'd be remiss to not talk about the performance of Kiann Bohnert out there today. She's not playing like a 16-year-old out there – she's playing like a fifth-year veteran player and we saw that today."
MacEwan outshot Calgary 15-9 in the contest (9-3 on goal), but Truscott made two incredible saves for the Griffins to preserve the clean sheet. Besides the one in extra time, Truscott dove to tip Rachel Barlow's 33rd-minute blast that was destined for the top corner.
"I mean, we wouldn't be here without Breanna," said Wright. "She played amazing and we're so thankful to have her. (The key to our defensive effort was) just doing everything together, dropping our line and playing together – just doing everything as a unit."
With the loss, their second-straight, the Dinos fall to 4-2-0.
Next up for the Griffins is a visit to Lethbridge on Sept. 24, while Calgary will host Victoria on Sept. 23.
