MacEwan Athletics and Bison Athletics
Suekiana Choucair scored on a 69th-minute penalty kick to give the MacEwan Griffins the only goal they would need in a 1-0 win over the Manitoba Bisons in Canada West women's soccer action in Winnipeg on Saturday night.
"Brittany Costa made a great run into the area and got taken down," said MacEwan head coach Dean Cordeiro. "Suek stepped up and scored a great penalty.
"Just overall, we played a 90-minute game today. I think we were a bit unlucky not to put more than one past them as we had a ton of chances. We played the right way today. We played from Minute 1 to Minute 90. We were tenacious."
The Griffins dominated early, with Choucair forcing Bison goalkeeper Maddie Wilford into a save off a free kick in the second minute. The match started to open up in the middle of the first half, with both teams getting chances off the counter. Bison fullback Hayley Ward had a good chance in the 14th minute, but Griffins goalkeeper Emily Burns was equal to the task. Burns made four saves in the winning effort.
In the 37th minute, Choucair sent Meagan Lemoine in on goal, but a sliding Wilford put an end to the scoring opportunity. Wilford made 13 saves in the loss.
Manitoba nearly broke the deadlock just before halftime when Bison midfielder Hailey Lavarias sent a through ball to Sara Schur into the MacEwan 18-yard box. Griffins defender Jamie Erickson made a superb sliding tackle, however, to stymie Schur.
Choucair was at the centre for another MacEwan chance, when she sent a free kick just over the bar in the 50th minute. Five minutes later, Lemoine fed a beautiful cross to Raeghan McCarthy, but Wilford swallowed up the shot.
After Choucair's successful penalty, the Griffins almost doubled their lead a few minutes later, but Kaylin Hermanutz chipped the ball just wide. Hermanutz had another chance to add insurance with a curled effort from the 18-yard box, but Wilford again was there to save it.
The win was redemption for the Griffins (7-4-1), who settled for a 1-1 draw with current non-playoff team Winnipeg in their road trip opener on Friday.
"It was definitely a wakeup call. We were faced with a little bit of adversity and we wanted to see the response in the group," said Cordeiro. "This group's going to keep fighting. We're never going to be pleased with dropping points and for us that's the right mindset.
"That puts us closer to our ultimate goal of securing the best possible spot in playoffs as we can."
While it's still unlikely the Griffins can catch one of the top two spots in the Pacific Division they would need to secure a home playoff date, it's hard to see a scenario where they finish worse than fourth. Their final two regular season games are at UBC-Okanagan and Thompson Rivers – teams they beat by a combined score of 10-2 on the opening weekend of the campaign and they have a six-point lead on UFV for fourth.
That could mean a "home" playoff game of sorts because the No. 4 Pacific seed will play against No. 5 Prairie (currently Lethbridge) at the home of the top Prairie seed (currently Alberta, who play at Edmonton's Foote Field) for the right to play the Pandas. The Griffins remain the only team to beat Alberta this season.
The winner of each of four groups of three opening-round playoff teams qualifies for the Canada West Final Four.
