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As 2025 comes to an end, read about Calgary Blizzard’s journey to winning both the Men’s and Women’s Divisions this year.

 

Blizzard best Foothills in title race

Calgary Blizzard’s women’s team continued their dominance in League1 Alberta having now won the title for the last two seasons and the 2023 Exhibition campaign. However, this year’s success was far from a formality with the title coming down to the final weekend.

Blizzard’s start was not perfect, a tie away to Edmonton Scottish and a loss to Calgary Rangers in their first four games leaving them two points behind Calgary Foothills even after beating them 1-0 the week prior.

Two weeks later the sides would face off again, and this time Alyssa D’Agnone’s goal would be the difference, the striker powering through two Foothills defenders before blasting the ball into the top corner and leaving the goalkeeper no chance.

This put them a point ahead of their title rivals and with both teams winning their next games they remained a single point clear halfway through the season.

Blizzard would go on to tie away to Edmonton BTB, levelling with three minutes left, which put them a point behind Foothills in the chase for the championship.

Both teams would go on to win the next four matches, Blizzard’s run including the high-flying St Albert Impact, back-to-back victories against Callies United, and overcoming Edmonton BTB 3-1.

In their penultimate game, Foothills faced third-placed St Albert Impact and took the early lead through Rachel Barlow. They held on until the 72nd minute when a 30-yard strike soared in to level the scores, and ten minutes later they fell behind when yet another scorching shot sailed into the net.

The loss would put the destination of the title squarely in the hands of Blizzard, who triumphed at Calgary Villains with a brace from Bryn Mortensen.

Blizzard weather storm to become champions

After falling just short in 2024, Calgary Blizzard’s men managed to go a step further and secure the League1 Alberta Men’s Division title in dramatic fashion with final-day drama and an eight-goal thriller.

Last year a 4-2 defeat in the penultimate game to St Albert Impact left them to fall just short of the prize.

Blizzard started 2025 fairly well, only dropping two points in the first quarter of the season which left them five points of Impact, their eventual title rivals, who had broken their hearts the year before.

The strong start would falter a few times through the next set of games, only two wins in their next five compared to Impact’s four wins and two ties with an overall score of 24-7.

The form saw Blizzard’s lead slip away, until they faced Callies United in back-to-back games.

The first match-up was a game of two halves: Blizzard scored in the first, third, 10th, 12th and 21st minutes to storm out to an early 5-0 lead with a hat-trick from top scorer Marco Plenzik and a brace from Moe El Gandour.

Callies fought back with four goals before the half ended that left the teams heading back to the locker room at 5-4. However, an incredibly vibrant first half followed by a goalless second and Blizzard held on to the points.

The next meeting was much more straightforward as Blizzard held a 3-0 lead until a late penalty pulled back a consolation goal for the hosts.

Four points from their next two games left Blizzard five points above their title rivals, but crucially, they still had to play St Albert twice.

The first was an away trip and would lead to their first defeat all season. Substitute Shameiks McLeod scored a second-half hat-trick for Impact to take an imperious 4-0 win, bringing the title race down to two points with two games, including the return fixture, to go.

Both teams would win comfortably in their penultimate games, meaning it would go down to a finale on the last weekend.

Impact needed to win and came out of the gates flying with two back-to-back goals for Rodane Cato placing them in pole position to take the title.

Half-time adjustments from Blizzard came into effect and three goals before the hour mark gave them the lead and crucially meant that the visitors would need two more goals to become champions.

They got one back when McLeod pounced on a loose ball and balanced the scores once again, but it was not to be; late goals from Josral Frederick and a second for El Gandour put the game out of reach and secured the championship for Calgary Blizzard.

With their excellent season now wrapped up, the oldest soccer team in Calgary became the newest team to take the League1 Alberta Men’s Division title.