Rams win their first of the season

By Michael Grace-Dacosta

The Ryerson Ram’s women’s soccer team (1-3-0) won their first game of the season on Sunday, defeating Nipissing Lakers (1-2-1) 1-0 at Monarch Park Stadium.

Midfielder Nicole Pavia scored the lone goal in the 21^st minute, while goaltender Rebecca Petrocelli picked up her first shutout as the Rams won their first game since Sept. 9, 2012.

“Feels good to win a game,” said Rams head coach Kevin Souter. “The past two games I felt we were robbed. We deserved at least a point from those games.”

“[Although] it wasn’t pretty at times, today [we were] rewarded. We just worked hard and managed to find a way to get the result.”

However, Ryerson defender Julia Zupo left the game with an apparent concussion.

“If she got a concussion that’s going to be real unfortunate and a real loss to us,” said Souter. “Hopefully she doesn’t show any symptoms tomorrow and she’s good to go for this week.”

The Rams outshot the Lakers 7-2 and had two more corner kicks.

First-year midfielder Karena Evans slipped past her mark for an early scoring chance but wasn’t as lucky when she appeared to be fouled in the box by a Nipissing defender.

“I think it just gave us a bit more fire,” said Souter of the non-call. “Sometimes you get these calls, sometimes you don’t. Today I think [the refs] got a couple calls wrong.”

Paiva, who scored her second goal of the season, credited her teammate on the winning goal.

“It was Karena Evans who was pressuring the ball, pressuring the defender, and pressuring the goalie. And then it came to my foot and I just put it away,” said Pavia
The Lakers came at the Rams aggressively in the second half and were only a few misses away from tying the game.

“We should have got the game, killed the game earlier,” said Souter. “We know what to expect but as the game wore on they just started dumping balls in our back line, behind our back line.

“There were a couple mayday moments but we were pretty strong at the back. Defensively very disciplined, and we managed to hold tight.”

The Rams will play the Toronto Varsity Blues next Sunday, their first of four straight games on the road.