SASKATOON, Sask. – Friday night (Aug. 30) at Griffiths Stadium the Alberta Golden Bears captured a convincing win over the Huskies, taking the 8th edition of the Bateman Cup 4-0. 

The matched opened with the visiting Golden Bears in control of possession, spending the majority of time on the attack. Despite the heavy pressure the Huskies defence held, holding off the threat of an early score. 

Just past the 20-minute mark in the match, fans in attendance saw the best scoring chance for either team when a long Alberta pass down the sideline found a Golden Bear downfield with space. After the initial shot was saved by Huskie keeper Jaron Slopinski, the rebound found another attacker who came inches away from opening the scoring after his shot went off the cross bar. 

With the first high-danger opportunity out of the way, the two teams settled into midfield play.

Late in the half, another high-danger opportunity came for the Bears when Huskie captain Luke Mackie was forced to make a diving kick at a ball just feet from his own goal line. The chance would send a rush into the Alberta attack who continued to push the ball into the Huskie zone. Eventually, the relentless pressure broke through, with another rebound finding an Alberta forward in close to the USask net. Habib Assem made no mistake on the rebound, giving the Golden Bears the lead. 

Despite momentum in the Bear's favour, the Huskie defence held back several opportunities for the visiting team and entered halftime down by one. 

The second half saw the Huskie defence continuing to hold back the Alberta pressure until the 69th minute when Alberta's Jake Bosch found Rilind Idrizi for an open shot. With Slopinski unable to get a hand on the shot, the Bears took a commanding second half lead. 

In the final 10 minutes of the match, the Bears were once again rewarded for their continuous pressure, netting goals in the 84th (Frankroy Cain) and 88th (Caden Ruby) minute to take the win 4-0.

With the loss, the Huskies fall to 0-3-0 to open the campaign while the Bears start their season 1-0-0. 

STATS
The Golden Bears offence was relentless in their season opener, out-shooting the Huskies 14-9 with 4 shots on goal to the Dogs' 3. In net, Alberta's Liam Collens had the advantage, stopping all three Saskatchewan shots he faced for a clean sheet.

UP NEXT
The Huskies will return to the pitch at Griffiths Stadium Sunday (Sept. 1) afternoon to host the MacEwan Griffins. Kickoff is set for 2pm in Nutrien Park with tickets to the match available at huskietickets.com. 

ABOUT THE BATEMAN CUP
'The Bateman Cup' refers to an annual match between the Saskatchewan Huskies and Alberta Golden Bears. The Bateman Cup was established in 2016 to honour veterans from the First World War from Saskatoon and was named after Reginald John Godfrey Bateman. Bateman, a former professor at USask, was the captain of the university's soccer team prior to enlisting in 1914. Click here to read more.