Gee-Gees dominate, but fight hard to win against Carleton
The University of Ottawa women’s soccer team took on the Carleton Ravens on Sept. 17 across the canal for their first matchup of the season. The game between the cross-town rivals is always an exciting event, and as usual, it did not disappoint.
Coming off a win and a tie in Kingston against the Royal Military College (RMC) and fifth ranked Queen’s University, the Gee-Gees wanted to keep or move up from their fourth place in the national rankings. The Carleton Ravens were looking to spoil that plan.
The Gee-Gees managed to generate a corner in the first five minutes of play as the game looked pretty tight early on. The Ravens’ goalkeeper did well to jump above the players to grab the ball and hold on, stopping any Gees from getting their head on it.
It took just 10 minutes for the Ravens to take the lead as they managed to get the ball around second-year Gee-Gees keeper Julie-Anne Lamarche. There was some confusion between the defenders and the goalkeeper on the play, as the latter came out too far and the ball was played nicely over the sprawled Lamarche.
The Gees came right back with an opportunity, but second-year striker Emma Lefebvre’s shot missed the mark. Another corner given in favour of the Garnet and Grey gave them another opportunity, but the ball fell just short.
The Ravens got their second and last shot of the game just before the 15-minute mark—Lamarche handled it well, showing composure despite the early goal. Lefebvre got another chance minutes later as she received a perfect through ball, but missed just left. The Gees started the game with only one striker, and used Lefebvre early and often.
Fifth-year midfielder Faythe Lou created a great through ball to Lefebvre that was played away nicely by a Raven, but created another corner for the Gees, with less than three minutes before the 20-minute mark. Carleton defended the kick well.
Lefebvre had her best chance of the game at the 32-minute mark with a great cross from fourth-year forward Delaney Rickert-Hall. However Lefebvre had more time than she thought and missed the right corner.
Going into the second half the Gees definitely had opportunities, but failed to capitalize on them.
The Gees came out very hard in the second half, controlling the play in all aspects. In the 57th minute things got ugly as Ravens forward Emily Copeland Dinan hit former U of O rookie athlete of the year Cooper Lee with a hockey body-check. Copeland Dinan was booked with a yellow card for the foul.
Third-year midfielder Katherine Bearne scored her fourth goal of the year in the 68th minute, successfully converting on a ball that was laying in the box.
The Gees were looking at another tie heading into the 90th minute. However, after being snake bitten for most of the game, Lefebvre would play the hero, giving the Gees a 2–1 win as she out-hustled a Carleton defender to finally score her team-leading fifth goal.
Here’s the game winner! pic.twitter.com/hEIthXGz0i
— uOttawa Soccer (@geegees_wsoccer) September 17, 2017
The Gee-Gees will play their next home game Oct. 7 against RMC on Matt Anthony field at 1 p.m. Tickets can be purchased from the Gee-Gees’ website.
