Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Taking advantage of a ball which ricocheted around and ended up on her boot, Jamie Erickson delivered a 42nd minute strike from eight feet out for the only goal the MacEwan Griffins would need to defeat the Victoria Vikes 1-0 in the Canada West quarter-final on Sunday at Clarke Stadium.
The win not only sends the Griffins to the Canada West Final Four for the third time in the past four years, it means they will host the soiree for the first time in program history next Friday and Saturday.
"It came off one of Meagan Lemoine's throws," noted Erickson of the winning goal. "Her throws have been great all season and we haven't really capitalized on one, so it just ricocheted around in there and I got on the end of it.
"For us to have the home crowd and be one win away from going to nationals is pretty unreal, but the job's not done."
Victoria pushed hard against an icy 26 km/h wind in the second half for the equalizer, but MacEwan's defenders kept them at bay.
"I think we were just wanting to hold our ground and stay compact and just protect our net because we were up one," said wing-back Hannah Supina, who earned MVP honours for MacEwan for the job she did in frustrating the Vikes all afternoon.
The Griffins came into the contest as favourites after topping the Prairie Division with a 9-2-3 record – three points better than the 8-3-3 Vikes. Victoria earned their way into the game with a hard-fought 1-0 win on penalty kicks over Regina in Friday's Play-In game.
"They're obviously a very established program with a ton of history and they're extremely well coached," said MacEwan head coach Dean Cordeiro. "We knew we were going to have our hands full today. They made some adjustments at half-time and really made things difficult for us in the second half."
Victoria didn't really generate a truly dangerous chance in the contest, but perhaps their best came in the 48th minute when Dari Cote lobbed a ball over goalkeeper Emily Burns – who was out to challenge a run coming from the left side – and it sailed just wide of the right post.
"I think the battle was better in the second half," said Victoria head coach Tracy David. "I didn't think we were first to the ball in the first half and I thought MacEwan definitely had an edge in the first half. I think it was a better response from our team in the second. We showed a little bit more grit, a little bit more fighting bite.
"At the end of the day, you've got to score goals. It just wasn't good enough."
MacEwan had its chances to get an insurance marker and came close on three successive corner kicks in the middle of the second half – the most dangerous coming off Sofia DiGiacomo's boot, who beat goalkeeper Puck Louwes but saw the ball deflected off the line by Kiara Kilby.
"It would have been nice to get a second, but it wasn't meant to be today," said Cordeiro. "The big thing for us is keeping a clean sheet and we got the one today."
Burns made six saves for her fourth career Canada West playoff shutout, while Louwes stopped two for the Vikes.
MacEwan advances to a Canada West semifinal against Calgary on Friday (12 p.m., Clarke Stadium, Canada West TV presented by Co-op), while Victoria will prepare for the Nov. 7-10 U SPORTS national championship they're hosting.
"It's big," said Cordeiro. "All these games are big along the way here. It's a step for us – another final four, our third in the short career we've had here. It's the first one we get to host, which is very exciting. To be in front of our home crowd with controllable elements and sleep in our own beds, it's big. We're excited."
