Coming off their first win of the season – 1-0 versus York on Sept. 3 – the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks women’s soccer team were looking to complete the sweep this past Friday on home turf at University Stadium.
Laurier started out the game playing with pace, managing to continuously keep the ball in their possession and on the Lions’ side of the field for much of the first half.
Although they had possession for as much as they did, Laurier was incapable of creating much opportunity for themselves to score, with York showing their ability to defend the box and their goal well.
“First half, I think that the other team defended very well, they got a lot of numbers behind the ball and made it compact in front of the goal, so while we got the ball into those areas, they had numbers behind the ball regularly, so it was tough,” Head coach, Barry MacLean said.
“Better than we have [been]. We still have some failings defensively and we’ve got to work on those. We’re getting better though, we’re getting a little bit better positionally, we’re getting a little bit better in transition and reacting to that, so yeah, I was happy today.”
York had even less to show for offensively as their time on Laurier’s side of the field was scarce. They did not show much ability to create any opportunity for themselves to have a chance of scoring.
Both teams playing strong defensively – but not having much to show for on offence – would turn out to be the story of the first half.
“Both teams that were playing today are possession type teams and I thought we controlled the ball coming out of the back very well,” MacLean said.
“But we didn’t really penetrate or hurt them in the first half, although we did have a lot of the ball.”
The second half would quickly turn out to be a completely different story from the first.
Laurier got to work fast, as they started out the first few minutes creating multiple chances of scoring.
Then came minute 52, when the breakthrough finally came. Pauline McCordic opened up the scoring for Laurier with a header off an assist from Nicole Lyon for her first goal of the year.
Then would follow Maxine Murchie, who broke away from her defender into the clear to get by York goalie, Tamara Orlando, with ease and score, with the assist from Emily Tamburro, to bring Laurier’s lead to 2-0.
Coming off the bench for Laurier after missing a game, she wasted no time showing off her offensive prowess.
“Second half, I thought we had more of a threat when Maxine came on, she gave us a little bit of time and that made the difference to stretch the game a bit more for us.”
From there on, the Golden Hawks allowed their strong defensive play get them through the rest of the way, holding York from scoring for the second game in a row.
Asked about his team’s ability to defend in this game, Coach MacLean said the following:
“Better than we have [been]. We still have some failings defensively and we’ve got to work on those. We’re getting better though, we’re getting a little bit better positionally, we’re getting a little bit better in transition and reacting to that, so yeah, I was happy today.”
Having the momentum of two straight wins now, the Golden Hawks will look to continue their streak and carry that momentum into their upcoming game in the battle of Waterloo, as they will play the Waterloo Warriors on Sunday.
