Jason Hills
For MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — The MacEwan Griffins learned a tough lesson against the No.1 ranked UBC Thunderbirds.
After MacEwan controlled the play and possession in the early stages of the match, it was all UBC thereafter as they showed off their quick strike ability, scoring three goals in a five-minute span on route to a 6-0 victory on Saturday afternoon at Clarke Stadium.
Sebastian Dzikowski continued his torrid scoring pace, recording a hat-trick in the first 38 minutes of the match.
Dzikowski leads the Canada West conference with 12 goals, and is just two away from tying UBC's program record of 14 set by Craig Chaisson in 1994.
Luke Norman, Eric Lajeunesse and Connor Mrazek also replied for UBC.
Bennett McKay made two saves in the victory, while Marco Ilich made six saves in the loss for MacEwan, who dropped to 2-3 this season.
"Possession and phase for phase we were right there with them, but it came down to those mental errors where we switch off (mentally), and we get punished," said Griffins head coach Adam Loga.
"We were right there with them and we gave them a couple opportunities they buried, and we're chasing the game and in big trouble."
The Griffins got off to a solid start in the opening 10 minutes of the match. They had some big scoring opportunities, but came up empty.
They had UBC on their heels, but couldn't grab the early lead.
Philip Masri heads the ball in front of two UBC players on Saturday (Rebecca Chelmick photo).
UBC's Dzikowski scored his 10th of the season, took a nice feed from Norman and made a perfect strike in the box past Ilich to give UBC a 1-0 lead.
After Norman made it 2-0 for the T-Birds, Dzikowski broke in behind the Griffins defence and made no mistake to give UBC a 3-0 lead.
Before the half was out, he completed the hat-trick in the 38th minute when a nifty deflection off a pass from Bradley Richardson.
"Those margins are the difference between a team that is contending for a national championship and where we need to be. It comes down to the small details that you need to take care of," said Loga.
"Our guys need to understand that details matter. We can't just be 85% of the way there. We've got to get to 100%, and we got to stay there."
Loga wants his team to learn from this loss and use it to get better the rest of the season.
MacEwan will look to regroup and get back in the win column on Sunday when they face the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack at 4:30 p.m. at Clarke Stadium.
"We've got to be self-aware," said Loga.
"We have to be honest with ourselves here, but make sure we hit the reset button for tomorrow."
