Shore’s goaltending, Bearne’s timely play give Gees the win
The Gee-Gees women’s soccer team took on the nationally tenth-ranked Queen’s University Golden Gaels on Oct. 8.
The Gees opened the scoring less than five minutes in. Third-year midfielder Katherine Bearne converted a perfectly placed shot from just outside the box in the top left corner to beat the Queen’s keeper.
Queen’s brought some pressure nine minutes into the game as they crossed a ball into the box. A Gael was awarded a yellow card after big collision around mid-field.
The Gee-Gees got their second shot on target of the game just before 15 minutes of play off a good battle on the left-hand side of the box. The Queen’s keeper did well to cover up.
A corner was awarded to the Gees at the 27-minute mark after some great hustle from second-year forward Emma Lefebvre. A perfect cross was converted by fourth-year midfielder Miranda Smith, with Bearne providing the perfect corner.
Another great cross was provided by Bearne at 23 minutes into the half, and fourth-year defender Kayla Da-Costa converted a great header to give the Gees a 3-0 lead.
2016-17 female rookie of the year, defender Cooper Lee made a great defensive play with 13 minutes left, deflecting a cross from a Golden Gael that looked promising.
With nine minutes to play, a Queen’s striker walked in on the left side on the net, but couldn’t solve the Gee-Gees keeper Shore. The Gaels were awarded a corner, and a dirty play in the scrum gave Queen’s their second yellow card of the game.
A rare time stoppage happened with 5:12 left in the first half as an ambulance was called to assist an injured Gee-Gee.
The Gees started the second half with another great chance, an excellent through ball brought a Gee-Gee into the box, but she missed wide left.
Queen’s got their first goal of the game called back after the line judge called offside with 25 minutes to play in the second.
A big save by Shore with 23 minutes left kept her clean sheet intact after a Gael shot across her body to try to find the bottom left corner.
With 20 minutes left, the Gaels’ keeper took out a Gee-Gees striker who was running for the ball. The referee pointed to the spot and fifth-year defender Anika Littlemore converted the penalty with ease.
Another big save by Shore with 15 minutes to go kept the Gee-Gees’ advantage at four. Shore made her best save of the game with five minutes to go, sliding to deny a hard shot aimed perfectly at the bottom left corner.
“I was proud that we could keep the shutout, that we could finish, and we could really show how dominant we are,” said Shore.
A lot of the Gee-Gees offence in the game was generated from the back-end. Second year defender Lauren Da Luz gave her take on her team’s play and what the win meant.
“I think in terms of this game we’re definitely going to set the gap further in terms of the ranking,” said da Luz. “This showed that we can score even against high ranked teams.”
The Gees held a record of 9–1–3 entering this past weekend, good for second in the Ontario University Athletics East division.
The University of Ottawa Garnet and Grey’s next home game will take place on Oct. 22 against Carleton University at Matt Anthony field at 1 p.m.
