The bronze medal game for women’s Ontario University Athletics’ soccer between the favoured University of Ottawa Gee-Gees and the McMaster Marauders on Sunday started off with an intense struggle for control, with each team hoping to get the go ahead goal early.
Ottawa’s first year Julia Francki scored on a beautiful shot that just inched over the hand of McMaster’s Brittany Duffey to open the scoring which ultimately ended with a 4-0 win for the Gee-Gees.
“[Coming in] I wasn’t expecting to get a lot of playing time. All the girls are amazing and we have a really good group of girls”, said Francki of competing in her first OUA final.
Ottawa head coach Steve Johnson said that he “was so pleased when she decided to come play for us at our university” adding that she “was an underrated player and now that people have seen her for this season her secret’s out”.
The Gee-Gees dominated the first half with two goals and rarely allowed the Marauders to get a shot.
In the second half, the Marauders showed they still had some fight left in them but couldn’t manage to get past Ottawa goalkeeper Cynthia Leblanc who made a number of tremendous saves in the game, including a one-handed punch on McMaster’s Tara Dawdy top-centre shot to hold on to the shutout.
Another two goals in the second half by Tara Condos and Krista Draycott secured the win for Ottawa despite McMaster’s best efforts and aggressive play in the latter half of the game.
Corina Jarrett added a goal of her own in the first half.
Ottawa will now head to Montreal for the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) national championship along with both Wilfrid Laurier University and Queen’s University in the hopes of claiming the national title.
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