Women's Soccer Huskies down, but not out after winless weekend against Ooks
After earning just a single point from their home weekend against the NAIT Ooks, the Keyano Huskies Women’s Soccer team is once again on the outside of the playoff picture in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC); though their fate remains very much in their hands as well.
The situation was almost made worse if not for a big comeback effort in Saturday’s 2-2 draw, where the Huskies trailed 2-0 in the 25th minute before receiving goals from Ayla Taller and Harleen Singh to produce the stalemate.
Singh’s goal in the 84th minute, her eighth in her time with the Huskies, came off a free kick saved the Huskies’ playoff hopes for another weekend.
“I’m proud of the girls for coming and keeping composure,” Head Coach Tiffany Fontaine said. “When you get down 2-0 like that, kind of unfortunate 50/50 type goals that weren’t really well planned or well executed. They happen to tend to draw you a little bit down, a little bit unfocused, but they reset, they kept pushing, 70 minutes was left in the game and they adjusted very well.
“At half time we made some minor adjustments tactically on what we wanted to do to try to put a little more pressure on them and stop playing so relaxed. They did that well, so we earned two goals from it.”
That result added extra importance to Sunday’s rematch, which was won off a goal in the 75th minute from Jyla Micael Erandio. It temporarily puts the Ooks ahead of the Huskies for second place in the ACAC’s North Division. Both teams are tied on points, but the Ooks have played one fewer game at the moment and hold the tiebreaker if needed.
“We knew the win would be really helpful in the stats and with all of us in the North being so tight this year,” Fontaine said Sunday. “A tie would’ve still just kept us in that even keel moment for us needing to continue to strive to get the wins.
“A loss we know now that we have some big games that have to be wins if we want to progress. It’s upsetting you’ve got to reset and go back and get everybody focused because those big games are going to matter that much more now.”
It seems unlikely at this point that anyone will catch the Concordia Thunder for first place, which leaves one spot left in the North Division.
The Huskies will continue their battle for that final playoff spot this weekend with their final home game of the regular season on Sunday, October 6 at 12:00pm against the Portage College Voyageurs.
