MONTREAL – A pair of defenders provided the unlikely offensive spark needed to lift the McGill women's soccer team to a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the UQTR Patriotes at Percival Molson Stadium, Friday.
Co-captain
Nathalie Brunelle, a senior from Pierrefonds, Que., opened the scoring in the 32nd minute of play with an assist from freshman centre-back
Ariel Carignan.
Despite being dominated 9-3 in shots in the first half, the Patriotes tied the score in the 45th minute when midfielder
Alexa Dallaire struck paydirt.
Defender
Leah Simon, a Mississauga, Ont., native, then provided the game-winning tally in the 72nd minute, unlocking the opposition defence and drilling a shot into the top corner past Pats goalkeeper
Arianne Cloux.
"The crowd ambiance in the stadium was pretty cool and it rubbed off on the team," said Martlets coach
Jose-Luis Valdes. "It helped because we've struggled at the start in each of our last two games, establishing our system and out philosophy on the field. Our start was better against UQTR. We were looking for the ball and wanted it more. Our possession time was (respectable) and we scored off a set piece, which is something that we rarely do.. But about 10 minutes after taking the lead, we kind of lost our rhythm. We could sense UQTR gaining confidence and we gave them too much space. Sure enough, they got a good chance and scored just before halftime, which stung a little bit. But that served as a wakeup call for us and we played a gritty second half with determination on every loose ball."
Rookie 'keeper
Annabelle Matysiak kicked out four of five shots to earn her second victory in league play. Cloux made six saves in a losing cause for the Pats.
The result also marked the 49th career win for head coach
Jose-Luis Valdes, who has posted a 49-42-18 overall record at the helm of program since taking over in 2013,
The Martlets now sit fourth in the eight-team RSEQ conference with a 2-2-0 record and will head across town to play the fifth-place Stingers (1-2-1) on Sunday, (Sept. 15) at 1 p.m. at Concordia Stadium. UQTR (1-2-1) heads back home for a Sunday confrontation with the Montréal Carabins (2-1-1) in a 3:30 p.m. start at Stade Gilles-Doucet.
SoccerMeter for iPad Game Data
| UQTR |
Game Total |
McGill |
| 1 |
Goals |
2 |
| 5 |
Shots On Goal |
7 |
| 0 |
Missed Shot Attempts |
7 |
| 100 |
% Shot Attempts On Goal |
50 |
| 20 |
% Shot Attempts Scored |
14 |
| 43:12 |
Time of Possession |
46:48 |
| 48% |
Time of Possession % |
52% |
| 594 |
First Touches |
590 |
| 8.1 |
Average Time of a Possession (sec) |
8.7 |
| 327 |
Passes |
323 |
| 55% |
Pass Completion % |
55% |
| 14 |
Number of Pass Strings |
6 |
| 6.9 |
Average Pass String Length |
7.5 |
| 12 |
Longest Pass String |
13 |
| 3 |
Corner Kicks |
3 |
| 5 |
Fouls Committed |
10 |
| 6 |
Goalkeeper Saves |
4 |
| 86 |
Goalkeeper Save % |
80 |
Scoring Summary
Cards
| UQTR |
McGill |
| 25' Lauriane Beauchamp (Yellow) |
(none) |
PLAYERS OF THE GAME
GOALKEEPERS
| UQTR |
McGill |
| Arianne Cloux (L, 2 GA, 6 SV, 90:00) |
Annabelle Matysiak (W, 1 GA, 4 SV, 90:00) |
2019 RSEQ WOMEN'S SOCCER STANDINGS
