Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – With sustained pressure throughout the match, the MacEwan Griffins closed out a non-conference women's soccer preseason tournament with a flourish on Sunday, rolling to a 4-0 win over visiting Thompson Rivers University at the Edmonton Soccer Association Complex.
Four different goal scorers found the twine behind WolfPack goalkeepers Danielle Robertson and Deanna Brady as creative patterns in head coach Dean Cordeiro's offence led to a strong measure of success.
"Having four different goal scorers today helps," he said. "That's by committee instead of one person scoring a bunch of goals, so that's very exciting. That's what we're hoping for – get a lot of people contributing."
Not long after Robertson made a great save by deflecting Suekiana Choucair's potential bar down blast over the net, the Griffins finally found paydirt when Jamie Erickson corralled a rebound off a corner kick and put it home in the 25th minute.
In the 43rd, Meghan Oram finished off a pretty tic-tac-toe passing play with Choucair and Meagan Lemoine. The second-year striker almost scored again just a minute into the second half, but her laser from just outside the area hit the crossbar.
But it wouldn't take long for the Griffins to add to their total. In the 78th minute, Samantha Gouveia made it 3-0 when she found herself alone in front. And in the 80th minute, Sarah Riddle scored a similar tally from 15 feet out when she took a great Kaylin Hermanutz pass and slotted it low right side past Brady.
TRU rarely threatened in the match, but had two late chances to salvage something on the scoresheet. In the 75th, Jollee Perrier tipped a cross just wide of MacEwan keeper Emily Burns and in the 88th, Madison Catt got a chance at a loose rebound in the box before it was scooped up by Griffins keeper Tianna Groeneveld, who played the final 14 minutes.
"Credit TRU – they came out really strong and it was a bit of a chess match the first 20-25 minutes, but I think once we settled in, we started to take over the game a little bit," said Cordeiro.
"Some of our top players controlled the tempo and made some plays. We scored a couple goals that there were maybe four or five passes that were strung together to set up the finish," he added. "The quality of some of the attacking patterns we were able to do … what we've been able to execute has looked good. We're dominant on set pieces. So, we're checking a lot of boxes right now.
"It's still early. We're not getting ahead of ourselves. It's more of an evaluation phase than anything right now, but we're excited."
Next up for the Griffins women's soccer team is a day of rest on Monday before hopping on a bus bound for a preseason tournament in Regina. There, they'll face Mount Royal University on Wednesday, Winnipeg on Thursday and Regina on Friday.