Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
ABBOTSFORD, B.C. – The finish that was lacking early in the season is showing up on time and in spades for the MacEwan Griffins women's soccer team.
In fact, it couldn't have shown up at a better time as they whipped the UFV Cascades 3-0 on Saturday night to mine six points out of one of the toughest road trips a team can take in the Canada West loop.
The Griffins were already buzzing after knocking off the U SPORTS' No. 1-seeded Trinity Western 3-2 on Friday, but to also beat UFV – a team they lost to last season – puts the icing on the cake.
"We're building something special here, for sure," said Griffins head coach Dean Cordeiro after his team improved to 4-1-1 in the standings. "We're in our fifth year (in Canada West) and we're progressing nicely in the manner we had hoped.
"It's not an easy road trip and we're ecstatic to be going over the mountains with six points," he added. "But we'll just take it one game at a time and reset and refocus for next week."
Oh, but they'll enjoy it plenty in the meantime, savoring a third-straight three-goal offensive output after some early season struggles burying their chances.
"I thought we were a little bit snake-bitten early in the season," said Cordeiro. "We generated a lot of shots … but our shooting percentage wasn't the greatest. So we said 'listen, we've got to keep firing away and not be discouraged. We're doing a lot of good things to get these types of opportunities and we'll start to get bounces.'
"For me, looking at the three goals we scored today, they were all excellent finishes – two top corner and a volley off a corner, so for me it's about execution and we're starting to do it. The group is starting to see for themselves and they're getting confident."
Raeghan McCarthy opened the scoring in the 16th minute when Brittany Costa's through ball nicked off a defender and landed on her boot. She blasted it from about 25 yards out off the post and in past goalkeeper Andrea Perkovic.
"It was a quality finish to get things rolling," said Cordeiro. "We fed off that and had good momentum."
Did they ever. Just four minutes later in the 20th, Suekiana Choucair laid a perfect corner kick past the box on a set play for Jamie Erickson, who came streaking in to the back post, volleying it past Perkovic.
MacEwan just kept pouring it on, taking a 3-0 lead off another set piece with a twinge of trickery.
"We baited a player out of a space and had Sarah Riddle step onto it," noted Cordeiro of another play set up by Choucair. "Much like (Sarah) did against TRU, she got the ball in her sweet spot and just crushed it to the top corner."
Choucair finished the weekend with a goal and three assists and now leads the Griffins with five points in six games.
"Four of our six goals were off set pieces and she had a hand in all of them," said Cordeiro. "She's been a weapon over her career. She's just in a groove right now.
"We've challenged her to elevate her game and she has. This weekend she was just at another level for us and was a huge reason we were able to get the six points on the road in the lower mainland."
UFV mounted plenty of second-half pressure, but failed to register a shot on goal in the contest. Goalkeeper Emily Burns earned the clean sheet and MacEwan's player of the game award.
"Emily was just cool and collected back there for us and made anything that was difficult quite easy," said Cordeiro.
MacEwan now returns to snowy Edmonton to prepare for a pair of home matches against Victoria (Friday, 6 p.m.) and UBC (Sunday, 12 p.m., both at Clarke Stadium).
"I'm very happy and proud of the team's efforts this past weekend," said Cordeiro. "Going to the lower mainland is never easy. To come back home with six points, I think, is a very good weekend for our group.
"We're excited and we'll take it one game at a time after this. Back to the drawing board for UBC and UVic next week. That's another hard back-to-back weekend, playing some quality sides. We'll enjoy it, but we're back to work on Monday in preparations for next week."
– With files from UFV Athletics
