Lady Stingers bring home first win

The Concordia women’s soccer team won their first game of the season shutting out the Université du Québec à Montréal Citadins, 2-0.
Coming off a five game losing streak the Stingers were determined to take to take an early lead. Three minutes in, mission accomplished: Forward Andrea Davidson scored the first goal of the game on a free kick, the ball soaring just over the wall of players into the top right corner.
For the rest of the first half the Stingers were a team transformed. UQAM players tried their best to get through, but Concordia had them blocked at every turn. Stingers’ mid-fielder, Molly Howes, showed no mercy, constantly being first on the ball. Towards the end of the half the Citadins began putting up a fight, finally getting the ball out of their corner. With five minutes left UQAM had a series of shots on net as well as a free kick, all of which were saved by Stingers goaltender, Fanny Berthiaume.
At the start of the second half UQAM players were clearly hungry for a chance at the net, but the Stingers were determined to keep the lead. Ten minutes in there was a close call when there was a scramble around the Stingers net resulting in Berthiaume taking a shot to the face and Stingers defensemen, Catherine Lalonde, booting the ball out of the crease. It looked for a second as though the Stingers’ goalie might have to be taken out of the game, but true to form she chose to stay on and tough it out. As if to prove the injury hadn’t fazed her, Berthiaume performed a number of stunning saves in the minutes that followed.
Buoyed by a successful first half and the dedication of their goalie, the Stingers blazed through the second half making a beautiful play mid-way through, when Howes headed the ball to Stingers’ defense player Allison Burgess who headed it in.
After the second goal, UQAM was fighting harder than ever to catch up, even landing a breakaway towards the end of the half, which was successfully saved by Berthiaume. The Stingers, however, were not about the give up their first victory of the season and kept the Citadins at bay right up until then end of the game.
“This was a team we knew we had to beat,” said head coach Jorge Sanchez, clearly proud of his team. “The players were practicing hard every time they stepped on the field. It was just a matter of taking some of the practice stuff that was working and having it happen in games and today we saw it, everything came together.”

The Concordia women’s soccer team won their first game of the season shutting out the Université du Québec