Cougars moving onto ACAC final

The ACAC women’s soccer semis kicked off today, and the first of two matchups on the day was the 10-0-0 NAIT Ooks against the 7-0-3 Red Deer Queens. The Ooks were the top team in the north division this season and received a bye into the semi-finals. The Queens were the south division’s second seed, and had to play their way in yesterday with a 1-0 win over the Grant MacEwan Griffins.

The Ooks came into the playoffs as the team to beat, and looked to be on a completely different level than the Queens today, dominating every facet of the game en route to a 1-0 win.

The Ooks had multiple opportunities in the first-half, but had trouble hitting the net as their attempts sailed either high or wide. That was really the only thing you could fault the Ooks for on this day as they owned the time of possession and were never really tested. The Queens failed to generate any quality scoring chances and made it very easy on Ooks keeper Tara Evans.

The Ooks finally got on the scoreboard at the 57 minute mark, converting a perfectly placed corner with a nicely timed volley that flew past the outstretched hands of Queens’ netminder Lauren Good. Good had a strong game and made a lot of good saves, but couldn’t get any goal support from the ladies up front.

The Ooks looked especially crisp at the back, where their passing helped them stretch the field and neutralize any threat from the opposition. Led by star forwards Leanne Kadatz and Nicola Weber , the Ooks are going to be a tough out. Kadatz had 20 goals in the regular season to lead the ACAC, and Weber also was in double digit scoring with 10.

Game two of Saturday’s semi-finals pitted the Concordia Thunder versus the home side, the Mount Royal University Cougars.

The Thunder disposed of the Medicine Hat Rattlers 5-1 in quarter-final action, and were looking to advance to their fifth straight ACAC final, while the Cougars earned a bye to the semi’s after finishing the regular season as the south’s number one seed.

The Cougars started the game as the more aggressive side, taking advantage of an extra’s day rest and pushing the pace early.

Kelsey Kinzner started the game with a great shot just five minutes in as Courtney Elliott lobbed a well placed corner into the box and onto the foot of Kinzner who was stopped at point blank range by an aggressive Trish Arends.

Monica Neilson and Caroline Ireland continued their steady play on the back end for Mount Royal, clearing a number of balls sent striker Lindsay Boland’s way and effectively limiting the Thunder’s counter attack to almost nothing.

Elliott would continue her outstanding play for the Cougars in the games 40th minute as she took a Kinzner feed just outside the box and ripped a shot from the right side that grazed off the finger tips of Arend’s hands and high over the cross bar.

The game would head into the half scoreless and almost seemed destined to finish that way, as neither side could generate much offensively in the second-half.

With blowing winds reaching well over 40 kilometers per hour, the pace of the game slowed substantially as the elements seemed to take control.

With just seven minutes remaining in the half, the Cougars would get the break they were looking for as a high bouncing ball was sent into the box.

With neither side able to gain control, the ball bounced around furiously inside the box, finally settling on the left foot of leading scorer Karlee Hodl, who is as good as it gets inside close range, blasting a low hard shot past Arend’s to give the Cougars the 1-0 lead.

Riding the wave of emotion from the crowd and the bench, the Cougars were able to keep control in the game’s final minutes, sending the team into a frenzy as the final whistle blew, 1-0 for the Cougars.

Head coach Tino Fusco describes the goal.

“It wasn’t pretty,” said Fusco. “But things just got ping-ponged around and the ball actually landed on Karlee’s left foot and when it lands there and she’s close to the goal, it’s going to go in a high percentage of the time.”

With the win, the Cougars will now advance to Sunday’s final against the number one seed in the north, the NAIT Ooks.

The Ooks bring a high-powered offensive to the table, in addition to a great team defense, as evident in their +44 goal differential, meanwhile, the Cougars finished third in that category with a +19.

For the Cougars it’s their first finals appearance in two seasons, when they dropped a narrow 1-0 decision to the Concordia Thunder back in 2009-10.

Coach Fusco says he knows his team will be in tough.

“I think NAIT with their league play and having them come to our pre-season tournament they are the cream of the crop so far,” stated Fusco.

“I think going into the game we are the underdog, but we’re playing at home and we’re playing in front of our fans and they’ve been fantastic, if we can get opportunities tomorrow we’ll see what we can do.”

Game time for the gold medal game is at 2:00 p.m. while the bronze medal match featuring the Red Deer Queens and Concordia Thunder will go at noon.

Best of luck as you go for gold Cougars!