Gee-Gees score in 90th minute to claim bronze at CIS women’s soccer championship

QUEBEC CITY (CIS) – The Ottawa Gee-Gees erased a 1-0 deficit against the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades to win the bronze medal of the 2014 CIS women's soccer championship at Stade TELUS-Université Laval, Sunday afternoon.
 
Sophie Curtis (Ottawa) was the hero of the day scoring the winning goal with only a few minutes until the final whistle. After dominating the opening half, Fraser Valley went into the break with a 1-0 lead only to see Ottawa to come back and win a ninth medal in team history.

With the bronze, Ottawa finishes one position better than last year's fourth-place finish. As for the Cascades, who returned to the CIS championship after a three year absence, failed to match there 2010 bronze medal finish.

"I thought we had some really good chances early and unfortunately we didn't take enough responsibility to shoot," said Ottawa coach Steve Johnson. "They came back into the game and made things really difficult. We changed around a lot of things in the second half. I think it started to switch the momentum in our favour and it was an exciting finish."

UFV coach Rob Giesbrecht on the game. "It was a good game. These bronze-medal games are usually played with a little more freedom giving more chances at each end and I thought we saw that today," said coach Giesbrecht. "Unfortunately, we had the majority of our chances in the first half and we could only capitalize on one. In the second half they stepped up and we couldn't match that intensity so we paid the price."

It was Fraser Valley who came out firing early, controlling both the play and creating the better chances of the two sides. Ottawa keeper Cynthia Leblanc (Granby, Que.) was forced to make several key saves, but in the 19th minute there was nothing she could do to stop Cascades defender Jade Palm (Powel River, B.C.) from heading home the opener.

Fraser Valley's defender Tristan Corneil (Surrey, B.C.) nearly doubled their lead in the 23rd minute. Striking a free-kick, headed for the top corner from thirty yards out, Leblanc made a great diving save to keep the score 1-0 Fraser Valley.

Lucky to only be down by one, if not for the play of Leblanc, Ottawa could have returned to the locker room tied despite the domination of UFV. A great individual effort by Pilar Khoury (Ottawa) in the 43rd minute was canceled out by the reaction of the Cascades keeper Kayla Klim (Burnaby, B.C.), who deflected her shot over the crossbar.

The second half started much the same as it ended for Ottawa, with a Khoury chance and Klim save. In the 54th minute, Khoury was sent in alone, but once again Klim saved the day diving to her right to deflect the ball away from the goal.

With possession swinging in Ottawa's favour, Khoury finally got the best of Klim in the 71st minute. The Gee-Gees striker was awarded a penalty and made no mistake converting to tie the game at 1-1.

A match that appeared headed for penalties, the Gee-Gees surprised in stoppage time when Curtis took advantage of a UFV defensive mistake and pounced on the loose ball beating Klim short side.

SCORING SUMMARY:
OTT 0-2: 2
UFV 1-0: 0

First Half
1. UFV Jade Palm (1) (Tristan Corneil), 19th
 
Second Half
2. OTT Pilar Khoury (2) (penalty), 71st
3. OTT Sophie Curtis (1), 90th

Goalkeepers:
OTT: Cynthia Leblanc (W, 1 GA, 7 saves, 90:00, 2-1)
UFV: Kayla Klim (L, 2 GA, 8 saves, 90:00, 1-2)

Team Stats
Shots: OTT 17, UFV 21
Shots on net: OTT 10, UFV 8
Corners: OTT 3, UFV 7
Offsides: OTT 2, UFV 1
Fouls: OTT 8, UFV 12
Yellow cards: OTT (Meaghan Ramsden)
Red cards: None

Players of the game:
OTT: Meaghan Ramsden
UFV: Kayla Klim

Source: CIS