The Concordia Stingers women’s soccer team continued their great play as of late with a 2-1 win over the UQAM Citadins on Monday at Concordia Field, but the score was much closer than the game itself.
It was the fourth win in a row for the Stingers and second of the week against UQAM, who they beat 3-0 on Friday Oct. 7. The Stingers were relentless in their attack of the Citadins and goaltender Veronique Bujold, but Bujold kept the game close for its entirety.
Concordia opened the scoring in the 33rd minute when Erica Geertsen bent a shot over and around a leaping Bujold from 30 yards out. The Stingers, led offensively by Tania Pascuzzo, had several chances before and after that goal, but were just unable to put the ball in the net. In the game’s eighth minute Julie Pawlusiak broke in alone after a long pass from a midfielder but was stopped by Bujold and shortly after that, Stephanie Cote made a nifty move by a defender to get some shooting room. The shot was tipped just wide by the UQAM goalkeeper. Pascuzzo had two chances in the game’s fifteenth minute but was unable to score. Another chance for Concordia was off of a corner kick when Melanie Poirier attempted to bend a corner kick in the far side but just missed, and the rebound by Pawlusiak was just wide of the net.
In the 30th minute, Concordia keeper Diane Ouimet was tested for the first time, making a save on Julie-Anne Buckland who broke in after a defensive miscue by the Stingers, that saw a defender slow up to the ball. Ouimet was solid in the few chances that UQAM did muster.
UQAM caught a break in the game’s 54th minute when the ball went off of Concordia defender Sara Chenette and past Ouimet for their lone goal and tied the game. The Stingers didn’t stop pressuring the Citadins and finally got the winning goal when Stephanie Chacon converted a rebound into the wide open net. UQAM wouldn’t get another chance to tie the game.
The winning goal came after some controversy when the referee disallowed a Concordia goal. Chelsea Baylis had stolen the ball from a UQAM defender and put the ball in the net. The referee ruled the steal was a foul and gave Baylis a yellow card instead of a goal.
“We didn’t capitalize on our chances in the first half, but you are going to have games that things don’t happen the way you want, but we found a way to win the game and come out with the three points,” said Stingers head coach Jorge Sanchez. “It may have not been the score we wanted but a win is a win.”
” In the past this is a game where we may have not found a way to win, but we won and the reality is, they didn’t score on us and they didn’t even get a decent chance.”
