MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – MacEwan's men's soccer team will kick off a rematch weekend with a rare weekday afternoon game in Saskatoon today.
The young, upstart Griffins (1-6-1) will visit Saskatchewan (6-4-0) at Noon on Thursday needing a win to keep their Canada West playoff hopes alive. Catch the game live on Canada West TV.
The last time these teams met – on Sept. 2 at MacEwan – the Griffins nearly pulled off an improbable comeback. Trailing 2-0 after the Huskies had dominated the early stages of the contest, the Griffins mounted a furious late rally, pulling to within one off Christian Kosmin's 82nd-minute tally and nearly tying it in extra time.
"I think we showed we could play with them and be better than them at times in the run of play," said Griffins head coach Adam Loga. "So we'll hopefully go out with the confidence required and guys should believe that they can get three points."
However, the Griffins will have to do battle without two of their starting defenders in this one as Sean Douglas was hit with a one-game suspension for receiving his third yellow card of the campaign and captain Josh Samuel is out with a concussion.
"We may approach things a little differently," noted Loga, who plans to drop Zibusiso Moyo to the back line, along with another yet undetermined lineup move. "We're missing some guys due to injury and suspension."
Following the contest, the Griffins will hop right back on the iron lung for a trip back to Edmonton. They'll then take a separate trip on Saturday to visit Lethbridge (2-6-2) for Sunday's 2:15 p.m. game.
"Guys get to sleep two extra nights in their own beds and stay on top of things with school," said Loga of the rationale. "I found as a player, as well as a coach, the downtime is almost a curse because they get stagnant and lethargic. I felt it would be better to be in and out."
