The Concordia Stingers came close to a tie but fell short against the Montreal Carabins, losing 1-0 in their second game of the season, Sunday, Sept. 8.
After losing 2-1 in their opening game of the season on Friday, Sept. 6 against Bishop’s, the Stingers came to the Cepsum Centre looking for results against the Carabins.
“We’re a young team that came off a really disappointing result on Friday, we really shouldn’t have lost, and if played like this on Friday, we would’ve won,” said Stingers head coach, Jorge Sanchez.
They knew it would not be an easy game, with the Carabins being one of the highest ranked teams in the country. Still, they came in as an attacking force and were able to keep up with the high-seeded team.
After a few chances on either end, it was the shot from Chloe Malette in the 14th minute that was unluckily deflected off a Concordia defender and into the net that had Concordia keeper, Saby Dagenais, jumping the wrong way.
“Considering it’s one of the best teams in the country, the only difference was a deflected goal,” said a disappointed Sanchez.
Concordia continued to press, not letting the fluke goal bring down their morale. In the 32nd minute, after a few easily stopped free kicks, Concordia’s Alexandra Dragan had the keeper beat but couldn’t beat the swarm of defenders that came rushing in to protect the net.
The half was close to ending when the Carabins came near to doubling their lead. In the 39th minute, Virginie Labossiere’s shot was stopped by Dagenais. Laurianne Garant-Saine grabbed the rebound and shot off the crossbar. The game went into the break with a 1-0 score.
Concordia continued to press in the second half. They completely outscored the Carabins on corners and on free kicks, and came close to equalizing in the 79th minute when the cross was headed onto the crossbar by Stingers Gabriela Padvaiskas.
Dagenais had an exceptional game, making two key saves in the second half that had the crowd gasping at the Cepsum Centre, and that kept the Stingers in it until the very end.
The home team also missed quite a few chances because they were offside, something they had a hard time avoiding for most of the match. At the end, it was quite frustrating for the Carabins offense, which resorted to crosses in order to avoid the trap.
“The second half they didn’t really do a lot, we just missed very opportunistic chances around the box,” said Sanchez. “The other team was resorting to grabbing shirts and pushing, which shows that we have the pace to keep up with anybody.”
The Stingers next game will be Friday, Sept. 15 at home against UQAM.
