Saskatchewan Huskies soccer teams preparing for playoff action

With the leaves and the temperatures falling, the Saskatchewan Huskies soccer regular season has come to an end.

This year, both the men’s and women’s teams have advanced to the 2019 playoffs.

The women’s team is waiting to see who they will face, as they take on the winner of Friday’s game between Manitoba and Lethbridge.

The men’s team will host the University of Victoria.

Men’s head coach Bryce Chapman said being prepared and knowing how to expose Victoria’s weaknesses is key going into the match.

“We know they’re going to be a great challenge for us on Saturday night,” Chapman said.

“They’ll be well-coached, they’ve got a little more experience, a little older group of players, but I think we match up well against them.”

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Women’s head coach Jerson Barandica-Hamilton said his club is fulling embracing the moment.

“It sounds cliche, but we’re enjoying even being out here in the cold weather because these girls work their butts off for 10 months of the year for this exact position and we’re just embracing it,” he said.

The men’s team goes into the post-season with nearly everyone getting their name on the score sheet — their 19 goals this season were scored by 13 players.

“You can see even in the last two games on the road, you can just see it in their eyes,” Chapman said.

“They’re a very focused group, very calm group and they just went about their business and put themselves in a good spot this weekend.

Midfielder Marcello Gonzalez said it has been a team effort to get to where they are right now.

“It’s not just any one person doing the scoring, it’s a collective group,” Gonzalez said.

“That’s sort of our message that we’ve been kind of going with for a majority of the season, but I think we’ve all bought into that now.”

Both teams earned the right to have their first game in the postseason at home, just the third time in school history it’s happened.

“I think this year has been really good for getting all our fans out and we’ve been getting a lot of support,” said women’s goalkeeper Jadyn Steinhauer.

The man hosts Victoria at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at Griffith Stadium. The women play behind Griffith Stadium in Nutrien Park at 2 p.m. on Sunday.