OUA Semifinals: Western defeats UOIT 3-2 in penalty kicks HAMILTON, Ont. – The UOIT women's soccer team suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 loss in penalty kicks to the Western Mustangs on Saturday, as the Ridgebacks made their debut at the OUA final four championship.
UOIT will now play in the bronze medal match against the Laurier Golden Hawks, who dropped their semifinal match by a score of 1-0 in extra time against the Ottawa Gee-Gees. Kick-off in Hamilton is 10 a.m. on Sunday.
Mustangs keeper Tori Edgar was unbeatable in regulation and came up even bigger in the penalty shootout, turning aside the last three UOIT shooters she faced, giving her team the comeback 3-2 penalty kick win.
Things looked bleak for the Mustangs after Jenna White, the first shooter for either team, rang a shot off the inside of the left goal post and back out. UOIT's first shooter,
Shynice Williams, buried her first opportunity to the left side of the net just above a diving Edgar who had guessed correctly. Western and UOIT exchanged penalty goals after that, followed by a sprawling save by UOIT goalkeeper
Melissa Linton, leaving the Mustangs trailing 2-1 after two and a half rounds.
That's when Edgar took over.
After beating Edgar low on the left side the previous shot, UOIT decided to test the Mustangs keeper once more in the same location, but Edgar guessed correctly.
This left the door open for Stefanie DiTella to tie the game for Western when she buried a shot in the bottom left of the net past the Ridgebacks keeper who was diving in the opposite direction.
After another Edgar save, the Mustangs and Ridgebacks were deadlocked at two goals apiece after four shooters.
Grace Grafham, a late substation for Western stepped up and just snuck the ball underneath a diving Linton who correctly anticipated the shot would be to the bottom left corner. With the game on the line, UOIT's
Sonia Sampogna was unable to beat Edgar, as the Mustangs booked their ticket to Sunday's gold medal match.
The scoreless draw was a story of tight defence and squandered chances.
The Western Mustangs were the first team to put a ball on target when striker Amanda Boyle's shot from the side of the net, about 15 yards out, took an unusual deflection and Linton to turn the ball aside.
In the 17
th, minute, UOIT came close to opening the scoring when forward
Jessica Mithrush booted the ball high over the net after getting a clean shot off from the top of the 18-yard box.
The half's best chance, however, came in the 40
th minute courtesy of UOIT.
Cassandra Sribny made a beautiful touch pass that sprung defender
Nicole Zajac in alone on Edgar. Zajac chipped the ball over the diving keeper as she came out to challenge, but three Western defenders were in the area to clear the ball out of danger for a UOIT corner.
Those in attendance had their eyes turned towards the UOIT end for the majority of the second half as Western dominated ball possession, but was unable to create any truly dangerous scoring chances. Western sent 14 shots towards the UOIT goal, but only four landed on target.
The game opened up in extra time with neither team wanting to test fate in a penalty shootout out.
At the 24-minute mark of extra time, Sribny broke in alone for UOIT but the play was whistled dead on an offside. Just over a minute later, a UOIT turnover led to Western's dynamic duo of Boyle - OUA's co-leading scorer - and Lauren Winquist getting a two-on-one opportunity, but Winquist was just offside on Boyle's touch pass. Boyle had to play the majority of extra time with a yellow card after getting booked for a hard slide tackle shortly after the extra frame commenced
Western midfielder Angelika Mihalopulos was named Player of the Game for her strong defensive play.
