Horns drop season finale to Huskies

By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on October 26, 2022.

The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns men’s soccer team wrapped up their season with a 1-0 loss to the University of Saskatchewan Huskies on what was a soggy day in the city on Saturday.

The goal came in the 70th minute off the foot of Luke Mackie.

“I thought the boys did well,” said Horns coach Davin Haigh.

“The one thing that was a little bit disappointing is we didn’t really play our system as well as we could have. But on the emotional side, I thought a much better showcase compared to the first time we played them. I thought we didn’t ever crumble. We showed a lot of dexterity in our focus and at lease put pressure (on) and created some chances. But I would have really liked to have seen us kind of control the game a little bit more, but we battled.”

The last game of the year also marked the end of Haigh’s first season with the team as coach.

“I just have an understanding of now what I have in terms of player personnel ,who I can see continually developing under our new philosophy,” he said.

“And just like any new coach coming in, there’s going to be some pieces you’re going to have to maybe adjust and I mean this team has a lot of the major pieces — the foundation is there. We didn’t have a long time together — the preseason was quite short and the season is condensed.”

Haigh plans to use the winter and spring months to change and tweak some things.

“I’ll look to bring in some recruits to add, but there’s a good foundation there,” he said.

“So I’m quite pleased with how things went with the resources and the things we had to adjust and accommodate with.”

Haigh saw improvement in the mental state of the team as the season went along.

“It’s not easy,” said Haigh.

“It’s not easy coming off of a season where you don’t get maybe a result that you feel like you deserve. Then when a new coach comes in there’s always that uncertainty. The players are a little bit worried, they don’t know what to expect. I really tried to have clear communication with them and just let them know the direction we want to go.”

The loss gave the men’s team a record of 2-10-2 for the season.