EDMONTON – The MacEwan Griffins men's soccer team was left with two potential sides to the coin after a 1-1 draw with cross-town rival Alberta in their home opener on Saturday afternoon at Clareview Stadium.

On one hand, they were fortunate to get a point after the Golden Bears dominated the second half and finished the game with an 18-9 shot advantage (10-5 on goal) and went 5-0 on corner kicks.

On the other hand, MacEwan held a 1-0 lead in the contest on rookie Alvin Mazaheri's stunning strike on the final play of the first half.

Unfortunately, they couldn't hold onto it after Alberta's Ajeej Sarkaria evened the score in the 63^rd minute with the 38^th goal of his Canada West career, putting the electric striker just one shy of the conference record.

Mazaheri almost scored again in the 62^nd minute after lunging in the air to get a foot on a pass from Rakan Yassin before volleying the ball over the bar.

However, Alberta had more dangerous chances and likely would have walked away with a victory if not for some spectacular saves by Griffins' rookie goalkeeper Josh Stayko.

In the 23^rd minute, he laid out for a huge diving stop on a ripper from Jake Bosch. But his save off Sarkaria in the 65^th minute drew gasps from the crowd after the former FC Edmonton striker got all of a one-timer from 10 feet away only to be denied. On the rebound, Alberta's Rilind Idrizi looked like he had a sure goal, but defender Evan Berube made a game-saving stop on the line.

Stayko finished with seven saves and a tidy 0.875 save percentage, while Collens stopped four for Alberta.

Both teams are now 0-0-1 on the opening weekend of the campaign. They rivals will meet in a rematch on Sunday at Foote Field (2 p.m., Canada West TV presented by Co-op).