Women's Voyageurs Cup East Match 9: Tor vs Mon [R]

[DJT]

<center>Women's Voyageurs Cup East 2004

Match 9Toronto Inferno vs. Montreal XtremeSaturday, July 3, 2004 - 7:00 PM EDT

OSA Soccer Centre, Vaughan</center>

Scenarios

[*]Toronto will be eliminated from the possibility of winning the Women's Voyageurs Cup East if they do not win this match.

Match Previews

[*]Toronto

   » WVCE:  1-0-2  4-8  3  /  W-League:  2-0-6  10-18  6

[*]Montreal

   » WVCE:  3-0-1  16-3  9  /  W-League:  7-0-2  34-10  21

Voyageurs Cup

[Rocket Robin]

Result of the Saturday July 3rd, 2004 W-League game between Toronto Inferno and Montreal Xtreme played at the Ontario Soccer Centre in Vaughan at 7:00pm.

65 min...Xtreme Josee Belanger GOAL...Belanger on a 1 vs 5 rush after run on left gets 20 yard shot into short top corner of net beyond goalie Anne Ogundele.

Final Score:.......Toronto Inferno.......0........Montreal Xtreme.........1............

Attendance was about 150 on this hot evening with a bright sun shining from the northwest for the whole game.

The Inferno started out well enough with the opening 15 minutes having them shred the Xtreme defence even after having half of their breaks called back on offside. Then the Xtreme tightened up and would have six players squeezing in on three Inferno players leading to frequent interceptions. The Inferno had some more breaks in the last five minutes but in between these periods the game was more even and there were times the Xtreme kept the Inferno pinned in and the two Inferno forwards Naomi Eguchi and Lisa Collison quite surrounded.

Xtreme goaltender Stacey Vanboxmeer earned the shutout making a few point blank saves very early in the game, also near the end and forcing a few shots to be kicked wide. She enjoyed standing maybe 30 yards off her line when the Xtreme were in the Inferno end but recovered in time for any rushed shots by players trying to catch her off her line. Anne Ogundele had a few key saves too palming a ball over the net and catching some dangerous crosses.

This would have been the game the Inferno could have beat the Xtreme who were missing National team players Karina LeBlanc (goaltender), Isabelle Morneau, Marie-Eve Nault and Sharolta Nonen (defenders), and Veronica Maranda (midfielder). They only had three players on their bench and two of them were backup goalies although Marie-Pier Bilodeau was listed as a forward for this game. Inferno's one National team player, Melanie Booth is finished for the year with the Inferno as she's gone back to the University of Florida already.

Inferno made good use of Robbie Tournament winners--Dixie Under-18 players Robin Rushton and Natalie Martineau giving Rushton a full 90 minutes at midfield and bringing Martineau on as a midfielder for the last 30 minutes.

Referee Stephanie Denhaan sure didn't favour the home team as it seemed that two-thirds of the calls were against the Inferno.

Rocket Robin

robing@eol.ca