Late push sends Pandas past Dinos

CALGARY - Allysen Stachiw led the way with two successful conversions and a penalty goal for the University of Calgary Dinos women's rugby team, but it was not enough to defeat the Alberta Pandas in the Friday night season home opener at McMahon Stadium.

"I thought we got off to a very strong start and we were playing the way we wanted to," Dinos head coach Simon Chi said. "We were right in the game going in, but there were a few mistakes here and there...we had our opportunities to get up on the Pandas and we didn't capitalize. We basically gifted them two tries and we just didn't recover from that."

It was 17 minutes into the first half when a quick pop to the left side of the field gave Pandas' forward Emerson Hanrahan an opportunity to take advantage of the Dinos' defense, resulting in the first try of the game and a successful conversion from Kate Alcock to give a 7-0 start.

In the 26th minute, the visitors' lead was extended after a scrum as Kaitlin Tetteh-Wayoe burst through and scored five more for the Green & Gold.

The Dinos made their first impact on the field at the 29:22 mark. A short chip ended up beneficial for the Scarlet & Gold as Katie Bester received the ball and touched down for five before leading to the first successful conversion from Stachiw shortening the Pandas lead to 12-7.

After an extended halftime due to a weather delay, the second half started strong for Calgary as Julia McEwen recovered an awry pass before spinning away from the opposing defense, clearing a path to the try zone. Thanks to yet another successful conversion from Stachiw, the Dinos were able to take a 14-12 lead with 30 minutes of play remaining.

However, the lead for the home team was very short lived as Tetteh-Wayoe continued to push her way through with two consecutive tries, giving the Pandas a comfortable 22-14 advantage.

An attempt for some momentum was successful through Stachiw's penalty goal, but was quickly shut down as Alberta retaliated with a try from Tetteh-Wayoe - her fourth of the game, nailing the coffin shut on the home opening weekend with a final score of 29-17 for the visitors.

"Our defensive effort was very good in terms of being good in the close act area and things like that. The bigger piece right now is to hone our skills a bit more and take our opportunities when they're there," Chi said.

"Pressure does weird things and we just have to be better at playing under pressure. We just have to move on, we have to take some of the learnings from that game and grow from that, learn to deal with pressure better, and come out on the other side."

The Dinos return to the field this coming Saturday with a trip to Victoria, while the Pandas host Lethbridge Friday for their home opener.

            1    2    F
ALB    12    17    29
CGY    7    10    17

First Half
18'  ALB – Emerson Hanrahan try (Kate Alcock convert) – 7-0 ALB
26' ALB – Kaitlin Tettah-Wayoe try (convert unsuccessful) – 12-0 ALB
30' CGY – Katie Bester try (Allysen Stachiw convert) – 12-7 ALB

Second Half
51' CGY – Julia McEwen try (Allysen Stachiw convert) – 14-12 CGY
55' ALB – Kaitlin Tettah-Wayoe try (convert unsuccessful) – 17-14 ALB
58' ALB – Kaitlin Tettah-Wayoe try (convert unsuccessful) – 22-14 ALB
64' CGY – Allysen Stachiw penalty goal – 22-17 ALB
67' ALB – Kaitlin Tettah-Wayoe try (Kate Alcock convert) – 29-17 ALB