Stingers down Bishop’s in finale

The Concordia Stingers women’s soccer team won their final game of the 2005 regular season 3-0 against the lowly Bishop’s Gaiters, at Concordia Stadium on Sunday.

The Stingers previously beat Gaiters 5-0, in their last contest at Bishop’s and looked for the same kind of result.

The Stingers were coming off a 2-2 tie with Laval in Quebec City on Friday night.

The Stingers looked to get a quick scoring chance by creating offense through driving runs down the sidelines, and crossing them in front of the net. But the Gaiters defense was resilient and didn’t allow many quality chances for the Stingers. Concordia’s best chances of the half came out of three free kicks from 19, 20, and 25 yards out. The second free kick, taken by captain Melanie Poirier, induced a terrific save by the Gaiters keeper. The Stingers out shot, out chanced and outplayed the Gaiters throughout the first half, but the half-time result was 0-0.

After making a few half time adjustments, the Stingers came out prepared to take full control of the game, and that’s exactly what they did. A little over two minutes into the second half the Stingers finally got the goal, which eluded them throughout the first half. Striker Tania Pascuzzo made a dazzling run off the left hand side of the penalty box and dribbled around a Gaiters defender, then around the keeper and tucked the ball nicely into the far side of the net.

The Stingers dominance continued, and in the 50th minute Julie Pawlusiak ran down the right side of the field shot the ball at goal and it deflected off a Gaiters defender and it was 2-0 Stingers, just five minutes into the second half.

The Stingers pressure in the second half was relentless, and the final nail in the coffin came in the 57th minute, when Pawlusiak made an incredible left footed strike about 25 yards out. The Stingers were up 3-0.

They maintained pressure and kept the ball for much of the remainder of the game, and in fact they allowed only one shot against keeper Melissa Morgan, who earned her fourth shutout of the year.

“We needed to keep the pressure on,” said Stingers coach Jorge Sanchez, with regards to his team’s second half performance. The Stingers went from four defenders in the first half, to three in the second. “It’s good that the girls can play different styles”.

Up next the Stingers will play Friday night against the McGill Martlets, who finished first in their division and currently ranked third in the nation, in the QSSF semi-final.

“We’ve played close one goal games with them,” said Sanchez. “We need to realize that if we can get the lead we’ll be alright.”

The game against Mcgill will be played at Molson Stadium November 4th at 7pm.

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