On a rainy Thursday evening at University Stadium, the Laurier women’s soccer team suited up to face the McMaster Marauders.
This one had a steady pace early on, with both teams exchanging possession of the ball.
At the 29th minute, the Marauders struck first as they rushed down the far side of the field and managed a score on a high shot over the head of Laurier goalkeeper, Ashley Almeida.
The Golden Hawks managed to gain some momentum near the end of the half when they had a corner kick and a chance in close, but the McMaster goalkeeper continued to stand tall and keep the Marauder’s up 1-0 as the teams broke for half.
Laurier had a quick start to the second half, until the 48th minute when a Marauder attacker was able to sneak through the Laurier defence and gave herself a breakaway.
The initial shot was turned aside by the Laurier keeper, but the Marauders forward was able to pick up her own rebound and head it into the back of the Laurier net.
The Marauders then had a two goal lead with 42 minutes remaining in the match.
McMaster had gained the momentum and continued to attack.
At the 58-minute mark, Laurier keeper, Ashley Almeida, made a beautiful jumping save off a McMaster corner, kick bailing her team on a play that looked to be almost a sure goal with three McMaster players around the ball and a Laurier defender no where to be found.
Ten minutes later at the 68-minute mark, a Marauders player was given a yellow card after she came too close and intentionally blocked a Laurier free kick that was awarded from an aggressive tackle.
The Golden Hawks struggled in this one, getting the net on goal as it seemed that every opportunity they had to take a shot on net the ball ended up going wide of the McMaster goal.
At the 72nd minute, Katie Bishop showed the rest of the team how it was done as she took a long shot from 35-yards out that hit the post and rolled on the line before crossing the goal line and giving the Golden Hawks their first score of the game with just under 20 minutes to play.
The goal seemed to give the Golden Hawks new life as they gained the momentum and began to press for the equalizer in the final 10 minutes of this one.
The Hawks couldn’t seem to get any quality chances towards the goal and ended up dropping the contest 2-1.