Cowichan’s women’s soccer teams continued to fill the net against their stunned opponents last weekend.
Cowichan United prevailed 5-1 over Vic West FC in their Div. 2 match at home on Sunday afternoon, and the Cowichan Cougars won their O30 road game against Juan de Fuca on Friday night by an even more lopsided 7-0 score.
United moved into top spot in Div. 2 with their third consecutive victory. The match started slowly, with neither team threatening to score, with the exception of a few long-range shots that were handled easily by the goalies. Cowichan started to take over, and appeared to score in the 29th minute, but Alyssa Klotz instead had her second goal called back this season on a questionable offside call. Klotz kept working, however, and seven minutes later set up a goal by Madison Thomas that stood up. In the 42nd minute, after absorbing some pressure from Vic West, Cowichan mounted a counterattack that led to Kristina Biello beating a pair of Vic West defenders and sending Thomas in for a breakaway and her second of the day, giving the hosts a 2-0 halftime lead.
Cowichan kept up the pressure in the second half and increased their lead in the early going when Jada Hill picked up the ball on the wing and sent a long pass behind the Vic West defence to midfielder Keira Martin, who coolly finished off a breakaway for her first of the season. Hill extended her personal scoring streak to three games, taking a pass from Sammy Maclean and beating the goalie one-on-one. Vic West managed to get one back before Thomas completed her hat trick after some good work in the box by Dennene Wallace.
“They were playing an offside trap against us, and our ladies’ fitness proved to be the difference, as they were unable to keep up with our forwards’ pace for the whole game,” Cowichan coach Adam Paulson said. “The most gratifying part of the game for me was seeing the range of passes the ladies were making. While we had a lot of breakaways in this game, this wasn’t kick and run football. Our passes for the breakaways were coming from midfielders and forwards splitting defenders with precision passes on the ground.”
United will get the Thanksgiving weekend off, then return to action against Nanaimo at Sherman Road at noon on Sunday, Oct. 17.
The Cougars remain atop the O30B standings with a perfect 4-0 record after their 7-0 thumping of JDF on Friday.
Cowichan took control from the starting whistle, earning a corner kick on the first play that Christine Switzer directed home for her first of the season.
“It was a great corner from Stacey [de Lusignan],” commented Switzer, who was also celebrating her birthday. “Probably worth at least a thousand dollars.”
Monni Savory scored her third of the year a few minutes later, and Jenna Waddy potted her league-leading fifth shortly after that. With a 3-0 lead after 10 minutes, the Cougars eased up on JDF and scored only one more before halftime on a great finish by Jen Mann. The Cougars’ dominance continued in the second half as Waddy and Savory both scored again, and de Lusignan broke her goal-scoring drought to cap things off.
“It was great for the ladies to have time to move the ball around and try some of the things we have talked about at practice,” coach Darian Achurch noted. “I was proud of how everyone played as a team.”
The Cougars are also off this weekend. Their next match is on Saturday, Oct. 16 when they host winless Prospect Lake at Sherman Road at 4 p.m.
In Div. 3, NIFA Pacific FC played their first home game of the season at the Cowichan Sportsplex on Sunday afternoon, falling 3-1 to Lakehill FC.
“This year is a brand new group of players,” said coach Dano Thorne, who saw 14 players move on from last year’s team, including three who went to Cowichan United. “Our team has way more young players this year; we have solid vets as well. The team is building team cohesion and learning our system. The players are excited and will improve as a team; it is up to them to gel.”
Charlise Harris scored the lone goal for NIFA, who also got strong games from Maiya Modeste, Danni Dawson, Lila Johnny and Savanna Harris. NIFA will visit league-leading Prospect Lake on Oct. 17.
