LETHBRIDGE – Coming off a tough opening weekend, the Lethbridge Pronghorn men's soccer team will look to rebound this weekend, hosting their first home games of the season.
 
Saturday afternoon, the Pronghorns take on the MacEwan Griffins at 12:00 pm, followed by a match-up Sunday versus the Alberta Golden Bears at 2:15 pm. Both games will be streamed live on www.canadawest.tv.
 
In their season opening road trip last weekend, the Pronghorns (0-2-0) dropped both games in Calgary to the Mount Royal Cougars and Calgary Dinos by identical scores of 3-0.
 
Despite surrendering three goals in each game, fourth-year goalkeeper Nolan French had a strong start to the season, combining to make 17 saves in the two games.
 
Last weekend in Edmonton, the Griffins and Bears squared off in one game to open their respective Canada West seasons, with the Bears prevailing 2-0 on MacEwan's home field.
 
A season ago, the Pronghorns and Griffins finished with identical 2-10-2 records and the two teams split the season series with both teams winning on the road. The Pronghorns won 2-1 in Edmonton and MacEwan returned the favor during the second last weekend of the season with a 3-1 win in Lethbridge.
 
With the departure of leading scorer Lahai Mansaray, the Griffins will be looking for someone to step up to fill that void. Mansaray led the team with four goals and four assists, while returning midfielder Christian Hernandez was the only other Griffin to notch more than one goal last season.
 
For the Bears, a veteran led team, will be looking to return to the top in U SPORTS. Two years removed from the program's fifth national title they look poised to take another run at a title.
 
Returning Canada West All Stars Connor James and Ajeej Sarkaria will be keys to the Bears success. James only surrendered eight goals against in 13 games last season and tied for the conference lead in shutouts with seven.
 
In his first two seasons at Alberta Sarkaria has been a dominant force offensively.  Two seasons ago he scored an astonishing 19 goals in 15 games en route to being named the Canada West player of the year. Last year, Sarkaria tied for the conference lead in goals with 8.
 
The Pronghorns will have their first of two bye weeks next week and will return to action the following weekend to host the UBCO Heat and Trinity Western Spartans.