Women’s soccer Wolves stay undefeated after beating Cambrian

The Algonquin Wolves women’s soccer team kicked off the first game of a weekend doubleheader on Sept. 19 with a 4-1 win against Cambrian College.

Last season both teams played twice against each other. The first meeting was a 0-0 draw and the second and final meeting was a 2-0 win in favour of the Wolves.

Heading into Friday’s match, the Wolves had won in convincing fashion over Durham, Fleming and St. Lawrence.

The Wolves from the opening kickoff were focused on their mission to win the day and the game. Within the first five minutes of the match they were getting through the Cambrian defence. Creating so many opportunities to strike early, they broke through with two quick goals in the seventh and eighth minute marks of the game from midfielder Kassandra Da Cruz and midfielder Mallory Armstrong.

The domination persisted in the first half and the Wolves attacked relentlessly. The Wolves struck again in the 18th minute as striker Alex Aubin scored an all-alone goal to extend the their lead to 3-0 in just under 20 minutes.

Cambrian had no response and had a hard time generating any chances to get past midfield or on the attack for the majority of the game.

The second half was no different as the Wolves continued to apply pressure. They broke through for a fourth and final time in the 63rd minute as Aubin got in all alone past the Cambrian defence and trickled the ball past Cambrian goalkeeper Olivia Skinkle.

Skinkle faced 20 shots and was forced to see 33 shot attempts by the Wolves.

Wolves goalkeeper Paige King faced only five shots on target and was on top of her game until she was beaten in the late moments of the match by Cambrian’s Molly Watson in the 87th minute off a screamer of a free kick that was, by far, goal of the match.

The final whistle blew at the 90th minute and the Wolves were victorious, winning their fourth straight game, staying undefeated.

Wolves head coach Basil Philips, despite a dominating win, felt the team’s gameplay needs to be tweaked.

“We need to play a full 90 minutes. Letting in that goal late didn’t need to happen and we will just make sure we play the full 90 minutes we need to grab another three points,” said Philips.

Da Cruz described the team’s mindset going into the second half.

“We talked about holding our line more and timing our balls, but I don’t think it transitioned too well. We also said keep working hard and keep going,” said Da Cruz.

Da Cruz also spoke about the abnormal amount of offsides the Wolves had.

“We have to work on our offsides, because we got a few offsides and saying a few is me being generous, we got a lot of offsides,” said Da Cruz.

Steve Ball, the Wolves’ assistant coach, was overall impressed with his team’s play.

“It was a good match. I thought we controlled the pace of play. We were a little bit sloppy in certain areas, but they were a tough defensive team. I thought they got a little physical, but overall I think it was a good performance,” said Ball.

Armstrong spoke on the importance of the next game on Saturday.

“We’re just gonna leave this one behind and now turn our focus on getting the full six points for the weekend,” said Armstrong.

The Wolves were scheduled to be back in action on Saturday at the Algonquin Sports Field against Lakehead University Orillia.

Ball spoke on the newest team in the OCAA.

“It’ll be an interesting game. We have watched their results and we’re not taking anyone lightly, so we’re just going to play our game,” said Ball.