Cascades rookie midfielder Charandeep Rangi races upfield with a Calgary Dinos defender in pursuit.
Bori Falaye’s goal in the opening minute of play changed the complexion of the game, and sent the Calgary Dinos on their way to a 2-0 victory over the UFV Cascades in Canada West men’s soccer action on Saturday evening.
Mere moments after the opening kick-off, the ball took an odd bounce and hit the right hand of Cascades defender Jun Won Choi, giving the visiting Dinos a free kick inside Cascades territory. They converted with ruthless precision – Jared Fillo sent the ball in to Bori Falaye, and he rose to meet it a split-second before UFV defender Tammer Byrne and goalkeeper Alex Skrzeta arrived, heading it over them and into the net.
The Cascades (1-4-1) pressed for the equalizer but came up empty, and Falaye added an insurance marker on a penalty kick in the 86th minute for the Dinos (3-3-0).
“It’s 1-0 after 54 seconds, and it’s a bit of an uphill battle from there,” UFV head coach Tom Lowndes noted. “But I thought we responded well . . . we came out in the second half and really, I thought we dominated for 35 minutes. All the play was in their half. But we’re just not quite good enough in the final third right now.
“It’s the quality in our delivery – that goes to our set pieces and it goes to our balls from out wide. It just wasn’t really good enough tonight. When we have quality delivery, we have guys in the box who can score goals. But we didn’t really give them too much of a chance to get in the box.”
Bori Falaye’s header in the opening minute of play gave the Dinos a 1-0 lead.
The Cascades’ best looks at an equalizer came in the second half. Brady Weir, in the 67th minute, had his sharp-angle effort smothered by Dinos keeper Jake Ruschkowski. And in the 83rd, Gurmaan Jhaj’s free kick found Choi at the far post, but his close-range header went off the woodwork.
Shortly thereafter, Falaye was taken down in the box by UFV’s Spencer Williams, and he stepped to the spot and sent a bottom-corner shot past Skrzeta.
The Cascades hit the road next weekend to visit the Lethbridge Pronghorns on Saturday and the MacEwan Griffins on Sunday.
“It’s frustrating – I don’t think it’s a 2-0 game,” Lowndes said, reflecting on the Calgary performance. “But we’ve got to keep our heads up – we’ve got to stay together, and go again next weekend.”
Comments are closed.