By Adriel Smiley
The Trent Excalibur women’s soccer team came to Downsview Park on Sunday night looking for its first win of the 2017 season; the Ryerson Rams had other plans.
Ryerson bounced back from Saturday’s loss to the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Ridgebacks in dramatic fashion. They edged out a 2-1 win over the Excalibur thanks to some late-game heroics by Soraya El-Houni and Tatiana Srbijanovic, who put home her first goal of the season in the 86th minute to break the deadlock and keep Trent out of the win column.
Early on, Ryerson attacked Trent’s defence, gaining several chances to open the scoring, including one breakaway opportunity for defender Katherine Sollbach. But both the Rams and the Excalibur failed to score in the opening half, with Ryerson only registering a single shot on Trent goalie Mackaylen Bickle.
In the 43rd minute, Trent’s Kaitlyn Steffler opened the scoring, and for the next 30 minutes the Rams raised their intensity amid mounting frustration and physicality on both sides to force the Excalibur defence back on its heels.
El-Houni buried her first goal of the year in the 73rd, and shortly after, Srbijanovic scored on a tap-in to take the lead.
“We proved that we were able to score late to win and come back,” Rams associate coach Tina Cook said after the game, adding her club took positive lessons from the win.
The victory sets the Rams’ record at 3-2-1, tying them with the Queen’s Gaels for third place in the OUA East with 10 points. Trent remains winless at the bottom of the standings.
UP Next: The Rams look to avenge their loss to UOIT when they face the Ridgebacks on the road on Sept. 16. UOIT sits atop the OUA East with five wins and no losses so far in the 2017 regular season.
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