Dan Khavkin, Cougar Athletics
CALGARY- Round two of the women's soccer Crowchild Classic took place at Cougar Stadium Field Friday afternoon with the Calgary Dinos completing the season sweep of their inner-city rival Mount Royal Cougars in a 4-2 contest.
MRU bench-boss Tino Fusco commented after that games that "the games [we play] against Calgary are pretty well spirited and fast paced. I'm happy with the way we played today,"
Conference-leading Dinos have not lost since their opening match and were eager to continue their epic 11 game unbeaten run and proved it by pressing their Cougar counterpart for most of the opening half an hour.
Fifth-year Madison Frizte tallied twice 15 minutes apart in her final match against MRU for her sixth and seventh goals on the season.
MRU began to show pulses of life after being heavily pressed for most of the opening half. Talisa Tefledzuk cut the Dino lead in half in the 37th, poking the ball between the wickets of Dino keeper Lauren Houghton.
Houghton conceded for only the fourth and fifth time this season and had her seven game clean sheet streak snapped.
Calgary took a 2-1 lead into the break.
The Dinos again, began the half with a full-court press on the Cougars. Cougar keeper Cailyn Leeson was tested a handful of times in the opening ticks of the second period, being forced to parry away threatening chances in the early minutes of the half.
Sienna Prince-MacPherson restored the two goal Dino lead on a penalty kick she safely put away in the 72nd despite Leeson guessing the right way.
Hailey Nicholson pulled a goal back for her Cougars side, chipping Houghton from just inside the box to make the concluding minutes more interesting but it was too little too late for MRU to cap off a comeback.
Prince-MacPherson ended all hopes of a Cougar comeback with a brace of her own, scoring on the near post straight off the ensuing kick off to end the game at 4-2 and extend the Dino unbeaten run to 12 games.
"We fought today which was good," Fusco noted on the performance of his MRU side.
"Tomorrow we honour our seniors and that will be our focus to end our season on."
MRU close out their season at home against the Lethbridge Pronghorns at 1:30 p.m., continuing their battle for third and fourth place in the Prairie Division while Calgary travel up north and will look for redemption against the Alberta Panda at 2 p.m.