By Paul Cartledge, Golden Bears and Pandas Athletics
EDMONTON – With a pair of goals by sophomore forward Easton Ongaro, including the game-winner, the No.8 University of Alberta Golden Bears take a 3-0 victory over the Lethbridge Pronghorns as well as clinch a playoff spot in the post-season, Saturday afternoon at Foote Field.
The Edmonton native leads the team with seven tallies, tying third-year forward Ajeej Sarkaria for the team lead in points, the Business student notching a goal and an assist in the win for season totals of six goals and 10 points. Senior netminder Connor James made three saves to extend his conference lead in shutouts to six. The clean sheet also improves James' career conference total to 28, tying him with Victoria's Dominic Butcher (1996-2000) for the Canada West record.
Veteran netminder Nolan French made two saves in the loss for the Pronghorns, now playing in over 40 conference games and accumulating over 3,500 minutes played. The Lethbridge-born athlete also has a total of 196 saves, entering him into the Top 10 in the Canada West record books.
"It was a good competitive game," comments Golden Bears associate coach Martin Fenger-Andersen, "and I thought we managed to get control of it and we were able to convert a few chances to get a nice 3-0 cushion."
Opening the scoring early in the fourth minute, Ongaro's corner kick, utilizing a strong gust of wind pushing hard on a stubborn corner flag, curled a ball to the far side of the Pronghorn net for his sixth of the season.
On a bit of a broken play at the start of the 41st minute, rookie midfielder David Chung sent in Sarkaria alone, almost getting called offside, but shooting low past French to keep up a friendly competition with Ongaro, netting his own sixth tally of the season.
Sarkaria, who is quickly climbing the team history and Canada West history ranks in all the major scoring categories, added his 19th career assist early in the second half when he lobbed a ball to Ongaro inside the 18-yard box, the 6'6" Arts student launching the ball into the top half of the Lethbridge goal for his second of the game and team-leading seventh of the season.
"We forget that he's a young striker," praises Fenger-Andersen, "but he's one of our leading point-getters, so we rely on him…yet he's got so much quality around the box that we just need to continue to feed balls up to him and we know he's got the ability to convert those chances like he showed today."
The third goal put all the momentum in the hands of the home team, the Golden Bears persistently pushing for another goal and preventing the Pronghorns to reply with a strong defence that only allowed one shot towards Connor James in the second half compared to six shots towards French.
The now 8-0-2 Golden Bears host the 3-5-1 Saskatchewan Huskies at approximately 2:15 p.m. MT on Sunday while 0-8-1 Lethbridge head to the north of Edmonton to tackle with the 3-6-1 MacEwan Griffins on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. MT.