Midfielder Mitchell Bauche and the rest of the Huskies men’s soccer squad dominated the Mount Royal Cougars.

The U of S Huskies nearly burned a hole through the Mount Royal University Cougars’ net as the Dogs wrapped up their weekend Sept. 23.

The Huskies men’s soccer team scored eight goals, downing the visiting Cougars 8-1 on Field 7 in Saskatoon’s PotashCorp Park.

“We kept taking it to them. We didn’t take our foot off the gas. We kept going and going and we got the result we wanted,” Huskies second-year striker Brett Levis said following the game.

Levis, who recorded two goals and three assists in the game, opened the scoring for the Dogs in the game’s ninth minute after blasting the ball from the top of the box past Mount Royal goalkeeper Kamil Zielinski and into the net’s top left corner.

The goal came almost immediately after a Cougars goal was called back — Mount Royal striker Greg Miller was charged with pushing on the back as he headed in teammate Gustavo Becerra’s crossed ball. The illegal push disqualified the goal.

The call switched the game’s momentum and the Huskies took control.

“The [called back] goal was… a little bit of a mental lapse on our part,” Levis said. But “we picked it up right away, we went at them and put in a couple goals ten minutes after that. It picked the whole team up.”

Levis was named the Canada West male athlete of the week for his performance.

The Huskies, who have a lot of smaller players, found the similar-sized Cougars no match for their speed.

“We have a dynamic team. We’re fast… and always moving,” Huskies rookie striker Divine Ebesoh said.

Ebesoh scored three goals in the game’s first half. He scored his first in the 16th minute after quickly firing the ball into the top left corner of Mount Royal’s net. His second, only three minutes later, was a tap in off of a high pass from Levis and his third, in the 40th minute, came after knocking in another pass from Levis.

“I had a couple of chances in the last games but I just kept missing. Today I felt like I was blessed,” Ebesoh said of scoring the first goals of his Canadian university sport career, making special note of the assists from Levis.

Huskies head coach Bryce Chapman said the dominating win will help his squad heading into the next few weeks when they will face much tougher opponents.

“The boys played how we’ve been trying to get them to play…. To get the ball in the back of the net was a little bit of a weight off the boys’ shoulders,” Chapman said of his team. The Huskies outshot opponents in previous matches but have only scored a handful of goals.

This was the case in the Huskies first bout of the weekend. The Dogs outshot the Cougars 24-7 on Sept. 22 but only pulled out a 1-0 victory. In the second game they scored eight times on 25 shots.

Chapman says the team isn’t resting on it’s laurels. “One thing I’ve noticed about this group is that they are very realistic. They know that Victoria, UBC and Alberta are our benchmarks and that those are the teams we have to find results” against.

The Huskies, who now sit second in the Canada West’s Prairie division with a 4-0-1 record, will head west to British Columbia Sept. 28 and 29 to face the University of Fraser Valley Cascades and the University of Victoria Vikes, respectively.

The Huskies women’s soccer team found themselves down 1-0 to the University of Northern British Columbia Timberwolves at halftime Sept. 22 in the Dogs’ lone game this past weekend.

But three goals in the second half propelled Saskatchewan to a 3-1 victory at the North Cariboo Senior Soccer fields in Prince George, B.C.

The Timberwolves sparked the Huskies’ comeback in the 66th minute after scoring a goal in their own net following a Saskatchewan corner kick.

Huskies forward Daniela Fuenzalida took advantage of a penalty kick to give her squad the lead in the 82nd minute and first-year striker Jenelle Zapski’s goal two minutes later secured the victory.

Saskatchewan netminder Lisa Evans made two saves in the match while Timberwolves goalie Jordan Hall recorded nine.

The Dogs now sport a 3-1 record and sit sixth in the Canada West standings.

The Huskies women’s soccer team is on the road Sept. 28 and 29 to face the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds and the Trinity Western University Spartans.

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Photo: Brett Smith