Horns women’s soccer team earns key win

This time, a solid outing for the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns women’s soccer team was rewarded with a victory.

The Pronghorns downed the Calgary Dinos 21 during Canada West play Sunday afternoon at the University of Lethbridge Stadium.

As they look to solidfy their post-season ranking, the win improves the Horns to 4-5-1 following a strong performance in the weekend-opener Saturday in Calgary when one wayward bounce off a crossbar earned the Dinos a 1-0 win.

“It was a great team effort again,” said Pronghorns head coach Fred Trinh.“I thought, over the four halves we played, these last two halves were probably our most disciplined over the weekend. It was a good showing for us. It’s never easy to play the U of C. They have lots of good players and lots of speed you have to deal with. But when we play together it was nice to see that we can neutralize them.”

Pronghorns leading scorer Lindsay Amatto opened the scoring in the 12th minute, taking a feed from Emina Arima and then burying her fifth goal of the season after her initial shot was blocked by a Dinos defender.

The Dinos put up eight shot attempts in the first half, but Horns goaltender Micaela Stone only needed to make two saves.

Lethbridge moved up 2-0 early in the second half on a goal from Nikki Furukawa.

The Dinos replied right after Furukawa’s goal to cut the hosts lead in half, but were unable to find the equalizer as Stone came away with a three-save performance to seal the win.

With the victory, the Horns take over sole possession of fifth place in the Prairie Division, one point up on the 3-4-3 Manitoba Bisons and one back of the Mount Royal University Cougars (4-4-2).

The loss puts the Dinos at 4-3-3 and in third place in the Prairie Division, two ahead of the Pronghorns as the playoff stretch drive heats up.

“It was a great effort from us and we’re happy to come away with the split,” said Trinh. “That gives us some room going into the last four games and we’re looking forward to making sure we continue the trend.”

With two weekends remaining, the Horns hit the road to B.C. this weekend, starting Saturday in Kamloops against the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack Saturday.

The team is in Kelowna Sunday to face the UBC Okanagan Heat.

As they move into their last weekend, the Pronghorns men’s soccer team is also on the road as they trek north to Calgary to clash with the Cougars Saturday before taking on the Dinos Sunday.