Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON — The 'Obvious Guy Scouting Report' on the Alberta Golden Bears: never take your eyes off Ajeej Sarkaria.
The Griffins were watching him all right … unfortunately, their view was of him celebrating after depositing the ball in their net three times, including twice in the first half.
Adding to his conference-leading total, which is now at 18 tallies in 13 games — a new Canada West record — Sarkaria led the Bears to a 4-0 win on Sunday afternoon at Jasper Place Bowl.
"He's a good player. He finds pockets in seams," said MacEwan head coach Adam Loga. "I thought we did OK with him in certain times of the game, but if you give him chances and give him enough, he'll put some away. We didn't limit his chances enough."
Sarkaria knocked in a header past Dylon Powley in the 23rd minute before converting again in the 39th when he received a great pass from Bruno Zebie deep in the box and put it past the MacEwan keeper.
"The guys are creating chances and I'm just finishing them," said Sarkaria, modestly summing up his incredible campaign. "We have a great team that's really good at passing the ball around. It suits my game. It gets me in the right areas to score."
Sarkaria completed the hat trick in the 86th minute when he was Johnny-on-the-spot, putting a rebound into an empty net after Powley got just a piece of Calum Jardine's shot from the right.
"For all three I was just in the right spot and I buried my chances," said Sarkaria, who was previously a MacEwan student but didn't ever play for the Griffins. "I think I had three shots and three goals."
MacEwan's best chance of the second half came when Lahai Mansaray, in the deep right side of the box, elevated perfectly only to knock a header wide right in the 60th minute.
Less than a minute later, though, the Bears put the game away when Jardine shook off his defender at the top of the box and slammed a right-footed heater inside the right post. That's just how momentum works sometimes.
"That's sport," sighed Loga. "Some go in, some don't. That's just an example of that. You need to bury your opportunities, especially against a team like that where they limit you and only give you so many. So we need to bear down and score those.
"That didn't help. There's no question."
Powley made seven saves for the Griffins, including several diving stops to prevent the score from being even more lopsided. Connor James earned the clean sheet for the Bears without having to record a stop; all of MacEwan's attempts missed the net.
With the result, the Griffins fall to 1-7-3 on the season, while the Bears improve to a league-leading 11-0-2. The squads will meet again on Wednesday night (5 p.m., Foote Field), which is a makeup game from Saturday when snow forced a postponement.
Loga, who is keen to see his team push the Bears and make it into a true Edmonton rivalry when the clubs play, noted they plan to learn from the loss.
"It's a process," he explained. "They're an established club in the CIS and we're going to be that in the future. We have to keep building and building. It's not going to happen overnight. We just keep working and take the positives and build off them."