Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – There will be no playoffs this year for the Griffins men's soccer team.
But that won't stop them from giving it their all in their final two regular season games – Friday at Lethbridge (5 p.m.) and Sunday at Saskatchewan (2 p.m., both Canada West TV).
There is still plenty to play for.
For starters, a victory over Lethbridge would give them the program's first three-game winning streak in Canada West play after they've most recently beaten Calgary 1-0 on Sept. 28 and Alberta 1-0 on Oct. 4.
Victories over both teams this weekend would give MacEwan a 4-7-3 record, good for 15 points – five better than last season and the most since the Griffins joined Canada West in 2014.
"There's a lot still to play for within the group," said Griffins head coach Adam Loga. "Reality is reality. I think we knew as a staff and a leadership group that we'd be in tough with the man games we've lost and the players missing in those man games.
"But the boys stuck with it. There have been so many positives, and I think we've seen it in the last couple weeks."
According to Loga, their man games lost number will climb above 75 this weekend. That includes losing star player Chance Carter for all but the first two matches of the season, captain Jakob Sievert for the last five games, highly-touted rookie Reno Nero for eight, and emerging striker Alain Sitchet for the past four.
Still, they've persevered and gotten better as the season's gone on.
"The same kind of messaging week-in, week-out – just get better every week," said Loga of their aim for this final weekend. "I think we've proven that. We've had our 75-plus man games lost and more to come. It is what it is. But guys have stepped up, development's happened, growth has happened, and improvement has happened.
"We just continue carrying on that way."
The Lethbridge Pronghorns, who will be in the playoffs, enter the match at 4-3-5 and are allowing an average of just 1.25 goals/game – fifth-best in Canada West. They previously defeated the Griffins 3-1 on Sept. 7 in Edmonton.
"Lethbridge is really organized," said Loga. "I can't foresee them giving us a lot of chances with just how organized they are. They play a good defensive brand of footie. When we get our opportunities, we need to be clinical around goal."
Saskatchewan enters the weekend at 3-7-2 and are withing striking range of the Griffins passing them for fifth in the Prairie Division. The two teams tied 1-1 in their previous meeting this season on Sept. 6 in Edmonton, but the Huskies scored in the eighth minute of extra time off a corner kick on their final play of the match to steal a result.
"We felt we left two points on the board there," said Loga. "As we discussed, there's two teams in a draw and we felt like we lost that one. We want a little bit of redemption – nothing to do with them – but just redemption for ourselves."
