QUARTER-FINAL #4 CIS women’s soccer championship: Host Laval survives scare, beats Western in PK

Photo credit Stephane Gaudreau

QUEBEC CITY (CIS) – The CIS women’s soccer championship hosts, the Laval Rouge et Or, came from behind twice before defeating the Western Mustangs 3-2 in kicks in the last quarter-final of opening day at Stade TELUS-Université Laval, Thursday night.
 
With the match looking as if the Mustangs were headed to the semifinals, having taken a 1-0 lead in the 68th minute, Laval striker Joëlle Gosselin’s (Quebec City) 88th minute equalizer forced overtime.

In extra time, once again Western looked poised for a semi-final berth after Jessi Couto (London, Ont.) scored a laser goal into the top corner. However, fifth-year striker, Melissande Guy (Quebec City), again drew the Rouge et Or level. From that point on the game was set up for penalties where Laval managed to come out on top.

The semifinal matchup are now set. RSEQ champions, Laval Rouge et Or will face the silver medalists from Canada West, the Fraser Valley Cascades on Friday at 6:30 p.m. At 4 p.m., a duel of conference champions takes place as the Ottawa Gee-Gees and the Trinity Western Spartans face off.

The morning match ups will feature consolation semifinals of Montreal and UOIT followed by Memorial and Western.

Laval Rouge et Or coach Helder Duarte thoughts overall. “We say every player is important on our team, Hélène Moreau came into the game with a minute to play and she scored the winning penalty shot. Marie-Joëlle Vandal also made two huge saves for us,” said Duarte. “It was a crazy game! For sure it feels better when you are on the winning side. It was not our best performance though, the girls were stressed out, but it's behind us now and we are moving on to the next round."

The Western University Mustangs gave a fine demonstration of tight defence in the first half, stopping Laval from creating any quality chances. Meanwhile, offensively the Mustangs applied a lot of pressure keeping Laval on their heels. Each side had two quality chances, but after 45 minutes the match was scoreless.

In the second half it was Western who struck first over the hosts. In the 68th minute Paige Howard (Waterloo, Ont.) took advantage of some defensive confusion from a corner to put the Mustangs up 1-0. The Rouge et Or tried everything to get back into the game creating dangerous attack after attack. With the gaming drawing to a close it seemed Laval’s efforts would be for not until Laval striker Gosselin caused Laval fans to erupt with an 88th–minute equalizer.

The Mustangs regained the lead in the third minute of extra time through Couto’s thundering shot. However, once again Laval managed to draw even when a controversial goal was given to Melissande Guy after redirecting in Mélissa Roy’s (Levis, Que) corner kick. Preceding the goal Western head coach Martin Painter was removed from the bench after arguing the ball had not crossed the line.

In the end penalty kicks were needed to decide the winner. Marie-Joëlle Vandal stole show, making two superb saves guessing right on two separate occasions. Rookie Hélène Moreau ended the match by drilling home the winning penalty shot.

SCORING SUMMARY:
LAV 0-1-0-1: 3 (4-3 PK)
WES 0-1-0-1: 2

First Half
No Scoring
 
Second Half
1. WES Paige Howard (1), 68th
2. LAV Joëlle Gosselin (1), 88th

Extra Time (2 x 15 mins - no golden goal)
3. WES Jessi Couto (1), 93th
4. LAV Melissande Guy (1), 104th

Kicks
WES Jenna White, goal
LAV Alexandra Brunelle, goal
WES Tianna Deluzio, saved (Marie-Joëlle Vandal)
LAV Mélissa Roy, goal
WES Tori Edgar, goal
LAV Melissande Guy, post
WES Stefanie Di Tella, goal
LAV Cynthia Turcotte, goal
WES Jessi Couto, saved (Marie-Joëlle Vandal)
LAV Helene Moreau, goal
 
Goalkeepers:
LAV: Marie-Joelle Vandal (W, 2 GA, 5 saves, 120:00, 1-0)
WES: Tori Edgar (L, 2 GA, 7 saves, 120:00, 0-1)

Team Stats
Shots: LAV 20, WES 12
Shots on net: LAV 9, WES 7
Corners: LAV 3, WES 7
Offsides: LAV 5, WES 1
Fouls: LAV 16, WES 16
Yellow cards: none
Red cards: none

Players of the game:
LAV: Lea Chastenay-Joseph
WES: Jessi Couto

SCHEDULE & RESULTS

Thursday, Nov. 6
11:00 Quarter-final 1: Ottawa 2, Montreal 0
13:30 Quarter-final 2: Trinity Western 4, UOIT 1
16:00 Quarter-final 3: Fraser Valley 2, Memorial 1 (OT)
18:30 Quarter-final 4: Laval 3, Western 2 (4-3 PK)

Friday, Nov. 7
11:00 Consolation 1: Montreal vs. UOIT (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
13:30 Consolation 2: Memorial vs. Western (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
16:00 Semifinal 1: Ottawa vs. Trinity Western (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
18:30 Semifinal 2: Fraser Valley vs. Laval (www.CIS-SIC.tv)

Saturday, Nov. 8
11:00 5th-place game (www.CIS-SIC.tv)

Sunday, Nov. 9
11:30 Bronze medal (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
14:00 Championship final (www.CIS-SIC.tv)

About Canadian Interuniversity Sport

Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, over 11,500 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 56 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca or follow us on:

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