Pronghorns can’t conquer the Spartans

The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s soccer team closed out a weekend at home on a losing note. The Horns were blanked 3-0 by the Trinity Western Spartans in Canada West action Sunday afternoon at the University of Lethbridge Stadium.

Twenty-four hours removed from coming oh-so-close to their first win of the season before settling for a 1-1 draw with the UBC Okanagan Saturday, a pair of quick Spartans goals combined with two Pronghorns miscues gave the visitors all the offence they needed to earn the win to improve to 3-1-3 while the Lethbridge falls to 0-5-1.

“They finished on two very fantastic shots, but the bottom line is we lost two tackles that led to those shots and you can’t lose that in your defensive third,” said Pronghorns head coach Randy Bardock. “I thought we were really sloppy and watched the game instead of played the game in the first half.

“In the second half we had more intensity and played with a bit more urgency, but I still think we weren’t as sharp as we need to be.”

The Spartans struck in the 22nd minute on a goal from Domenic Poletto and padded that lead 10 minutes later on a goal from Joel Waterman.

Trinity Western completed the scoring in the second half on a a header from Caleb Johnson.

After laying back late against the Heat on Saturday, the Horns pushed the pace better late in Sunday’s game.

Still, the Spartans shut the door to earn the goose-egg.

“We did that aspect of what we talked about well,” said Bardock. “We were just very careless with the ball today and you can't dig yourself a hole like we did today against the strong, organized team like they are and think you’re going to get out of it.”

“It’s been kind of a struggle lately,” added Pronghorns fifth-year midfielder Stephen Primeau, who had three shot attempts and one shot on goal. “We’ve been getting better every week and this weekend I think we made improvements again, but we’re still looking to play a full 90 minutes of soccer. Yesterday we are up one nil and we played 89 minutes of solid soccer, then we had a breakdown for one minute and we concede the goal. Today was kind of the same thing, when we played our best we were able to compete and when we had our lapses, that’s when they capitalized.”

The Pronghorns are on the road for the next two weeks, travelling to face the UNBC Timberwolves and Victoria Vikes Friday and Sunday, respectively.

“I think, more than anything, this is an eye-opener for the whole group and there are a lot of lessons to be taken from today,” said Bardock. “I’m hoping they will learn from it as we move forward.”

That will include overcoming adversity thrown their way, said Primeau.

There have been games where we conceded the first goal and we were able to come back. I think today once we conceded that goal we dropped our heads and didn’t focus on the game. We just kind of got into our own heads. We just need to overcome our own mental battles so that we can push forward.”

The Spartans outshot the Pronghorns 8-4.

Horns goaltender Nolan French made five saves.

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