Ryerson midfielders shine bright in win

By Alex Baumgartner

The Ryerson Rams women’s soccer team defeated the Trent Excalibur 2-1 in a back and forth game at Downsview Park on Sept. 13.

In the 45th minute, Rams midfielder Katie Joyce put a perfectly placed cross from BreAnah Webster in the bottom corner of the net.

Joyce was testing Trent’s defence the entire first half and capitalized when the moment arrived.

“It’s always nice to go in the goal for sure, especially for something like crossing and balls in the air which is an area we probably struggle with the most in the past,” said Joyce. “We put a lot of work into that and I think it kind of showed today that slowly were progressing.”

The scoring didn’t stop there as midfielder Brooke Pearson rifled a shot from outside the box over the head of Trent’s goalkeeper to give Ryerson a 2-0 lead in the 74th minute.

Scoring against Trent was particularly special for Pearson, who also notched her first career goal at home.

“It was pretty rewarding, I’ve been working towards it,” said Pearson. “I worked hard over the summer and it’s good to see the results but more importantly it was good to get the win.”

Last season, the Rams were swept in their two meetings against Excalibur and returned the favour on Friday.

The beginning of the match was controlled by Ryerson’s midfield and defence, which prevented Trent from gaining any kind of momentum.

The Rams suffered a few injuries early in the game with defender Katherine Sollbach and midfielder Savahnna Robinson both exiting around the 20th minute and not returning.

“The first injury was sad, obviously one of our key center-back players went down with an injury, but from what I was told it was minor so I hope that [Katherine is] ready for Sunday,” said head coach Natalie Bukovec.

Things started to get interesting with about five minutes left to play as Trent did not go away easily with defenceman Cherilyn Yeboah putting one past Ryerson’s goalkeeper Elisa Lapadula, causing panic among some Ryerson supporters.

Trent pressed their team into Ryerson’s territory but having all eleven players behind the ball proved too much for the late offensive surge with the Rams able to hold on to secure their third win of the season.

UP NEXT: Ryerson will now take on Ontario Tech Sunday to close out the weekend