It was a clinic from beginning to end for Bryce Chapman and the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men's soccer team in their season opener, as they shutout the visiting Lethbridge Pronghorns 4-0 at Griffiths Stadium in Nutrien Park. 

The Huskies received goals from four different players, as Tobias Hyrich-Krueger, Ahmed Mohammad, Kuhle Bekwayo and Kwame Opoku-Addai all found the back of the net in the win. 

With three points, Saskatchewan vaults into a tie for first-place in the central division at press time with their 1-0-0 record, while Lethbridge falls to 0-2-0.

Not to get lost in the shuffle was Mohammad's goal - his first in the Canada West game in his first career game as a Huskie. The first-year forward from Bethlehem High School in Saskatoon was all over the pitch and his goal in the 38th minute gave Saskatchewan all the insurance they needed on the night. 

The clean sheet was the sixth of Huskies goalkeeper Marcus Baxter's career. Baxter's .071 goals-against-average ranked third among conference keepers in 2019 and his shutout on Friday night will vault him right back up to the top of category to begin 2021. 

The Huskies controlled possession throughout the match, while outshooting the visitors, in what served as their first match since the Canada West bronze medal match in Vancouver on Nov. 2, 2019.

All things considered, being back on the pitch and the form that his team was in was a positive for Chapman.

"I think players, coaches, trainers, you could feel the energy. They're excited to start playing for something that means something you can see in their play. If we look at 90 minutes, I was pretty proud of the guys, to play the standard they did for their first game after 18 months," said Chapman.

The result was one Pronghorns head coach Randy Bardock was not particularly pleased with.

"I thought we were very poor in the first half. Mentally we weren't sharp at all, in all aspects of the game and they punished us for it," said Bardock.

"We started to kind of do some things better in the second half, but mental mistakes are killing us right now. We've gotta be sharper."

Bardock and his club will get the chance to be sharper on Saturday night, when they take on the Huskies under the lights of Griffiths Stadium.