Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – When she was in the process of being recruited to MacEwan, Grace Mwasalla saw Suekiana Choucair play and instantly looked up to her.

Last Sunday, she had the privilege of breaking Choucair's program record for the most goals in a single Canada West season by a Griffin.

Mwasalla scored her sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth goals of the season in an inspired performance, leading MacEwan to a 7-1 drubbing of the Winnipeg Wesmen.

Choucair, a sterling midfielder for the Griffins from 2015-19, held the previous record with eight tallies during the 2016 Canada West season.

"It's absolutely everything," said Mwasalla of breaking the record with four games left in the 2022 regular season. "Suek was actually a player I looked up to during my recruiting process. Even playing with her during the summer in Major League, it was very inspirational to share the pitch with her. To break that record, obviously I'm proud of myself, but I wouldn't have done it without my teammates as well."

Notably, she gave credit to Brenna Paquin, who assisted on three of her goals to set her own program mark – the most assists in a Canada West game by a Griffin.

"It's nice to see her get that record, which is big," said Mwasalla. "Full props. She came in at half and made a big impact. That's honestly something we needed."

Both will lead the Griffins into home action this weekend vs. Mount Royal University on Saturday (12 p.m., Clareview Field) and vs. Lethbridge on Sunday (2 p.m., Clarke Stadium, both Canada West TV).

The Griffins enter the weekend on a six-game winning streak, including that big win over Winnipeg where Mwasalla also tied Salma Kamel's single game goals record and set a new standard for the fastest hat trick, scoring her first three in 13:24.

"I definitely knew about (that record) because Meagan Lemoine was my roomie last year and I knew about her 20-minute hat trick," said Mwasalla. 

"I was in contact with Meagan after the game," she added. "She was just congratulating me and told me she's proud of me, which is lovely to hear."

Grace Mwasalla moves the ball upfield against Mount Royal University in a game last month. The Griffins will host the Cougars on Saturday (Ellery Platts photo).

Head coach Dean Cordeiro can quickly remember all those big moments, but he knew the team was privy to another huge moment in program history last Sunday.

"We were watching something special, and we knew it," he said. "Based on the score-line, we decided to give her a break for the last 10 minutes, but it was a treat to watch. Not only did she score four goals, but she had her hand in so many of the other goals in terms of distribution and unlocking the back line with her movements and creating space for others. 

"We talk about Grace being a big-time player. She's only in her second year and she's accomplished so much in a short period of time. I'm looking forward to what else she's going to do in these next few years, including this season here."

Mwasalla is now in shouting distance of not only the Canada West scoring lead (UBC's Danielle Steer is on top with 10 goals), but the U SPORTS lead as well (Ottawa's Catriona McFadden has 11).

More importantly, the Griffins are not only in position to potentially post the best regular season record the team has ever had (last season's 10-2-0 mark is the benchmark), they're also in a spot to challenge for a second-straight U SPORTS crown.

"From the first week to now we've grown a lot and we continue to," said Mwasalla. "The training sessions have been really good, very intense. We knew we didn't want to be the number one-ranked team Week 1, we want to slowly be building into that. That's definitely the path we're taking and we continue to grow. 

"We're (ranked) fifth in the nation right now and we're looking to make history again. It's always just one step at a time for us."

And part of that is the resiliency they showed in both games last weekend. In Saturday's 1-0 win at Manitoba, they scored the game-winning goal after Hannah Supina was ejected for a red card. And in Sunday's victory over Winnipeg, they were down 1-0 before rattling off seven unanswered goals to win.

"I think our response was the best part about it," said Mwasalla. "Yeah, we were down 1-0, but we weren't really playing like that. We knew the goals were going to come. We just needed to stick with the game plan."