Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – It would be easy to picture the MacEwan Griffins men's soccer team huddled around a computer screen, watching Mount Royal University take on the University of Saskatchewan Huskies on Friday night.
They need Saskatchewan to win for their final home regular season game to matter on Saturday at the Alberta Golden Bears (2:15 p.m., Foote Field).
That won't stop the Griffins from throwing everything they've got at their cross-town rival – the only remaining undefeated team in the Prairie Division – regardless of whether or not they're still in the Canada West post-season hunt come Saturday.
"We're just going to look after ourselves and focus on getting set for Saturday," said MacEwan head coach Adam Loga. "Controlling our own destiny is no longer (on the table). However, we can go down swinging and go down fighting, so that's kind of the message the lads and the staff are carrying with us throughout the week."
To reiterate the full scenario: The Griffins (3-8-2) need MRU (4-7-1) to lose both of their games this weekend (Saskatchewan and then Lethbridge on Sunday) while also beating the Golden Bears (11-0-2) on Saturday to grab the final Prairie Division playoff position.
As long as the odds are of that scenario playing out, the Griffins will play to the final whistle anyway on a season that's going to end up being the program's best since MacEwan joined Canada West in 2014.
"I think it's important that we do highlight the positives," said Loga. "Right now, we're disappointed as a unit, just knowing how close we are and were for weeks prior, that we didn't take care of business the way we would have liked. But, for the nucleus of the group to be basically a U19 team, there's a lot of learning that went through this year and this experience was crucial in our development moving forward. Tons of positives.
"As mentioned before, we're coming down to the last weekend here and every game has playoff implications and we've been in it. That's never happened in the program's history. So, we need to keep our chin up or our crown will fall off."
As for Saturday's game, it's not out of the realm of possibility that MacEwan could upset an Alberta team that's aiming to complete an undefeated season. They lost to them 2-0 in the season opener at Clarke Stadium back in August, but the contest was even and could have gone either way.
"I think the whole division and conference is very competitive," said Loga. "And, as we've discussed earlier, they've got a winning culture over there. They know how to win, so I'm sure they've been in quite a few games that were pretty even, but they have that experience and that culture to find ways to get three points."
Individually, there are a few records at stake in Saturday's contest. Griffins' rookie striker Everett Orgnero will be looking to add to his MacEwan Canada West record for most goals in a season (7) and is also in the top-10 in conference history for most shots on goal in a campaign (29). He's battling with Alberta's Ajeej Sarkaria (30) for the conference's top spot in that statistic this season.
