Comeback in Capilano

By Davie Wong

Week four of PACWEST soccer action had the Royals battling with the Capilano Blues. Both Royals’ teams were coming off of their eight day break, while the Blues had just finished hosting the VIU Mariners.

            The women began the day for both sides. The Royals came out of the gates looking fresh, but rusty. They struggled to string together passes, and whenever the team could get a through ball past the midfielders, the Blues defenders were all over the Royals forwards before anything could be made of it.

            It didn’t take too long for the Blues to figure out how to contain the Royals. They defended the right players and continued to exude pressure until the Royals broke. For the most part, the Douglas College players held their ground. It wouldn’t be until near the end of the first half that the Blues would find a way to make their mark. A corner kick saw the Blues tuck away a nifty header that gave them the lead going into halftime.

            With the game on the verge of tipping over in favor of their opposition, the Royals knew they would have to come out big in the second half. Seemingly revitalized from their halftime meeting, the team that stepped back onto the field looked completely different. The attacking style that the team is so well known for became more and more fluid as the match went on, and the Blues struggled to keep the team in check. They gave up much more chances than they had in the first, and it was an inevitability that the Royals would convert on one of those chances. That conversion came off a corner kick from Andrea Perrotta. Her kick found rookie midfielder Madison Hendry, who put the ball into the net with a smooth header. The goal marked her first of her PACWEST career.

            But the game definitely did not end there. Snapped from their reverie, the Blues came back swinging. This time, it was the Royals backline that held solid. Hard work and great coverage by captains Samantha Kell and Michelle Wessa ensured nearly nothing got past them. For the few that did, their looks on net were so limited that they could only see Royals goalkeeper, Alexa Gazzola, making routine saves to keep the game at a stalemate.

             But the Royals would not be satisfied with another draw. They wanted the three points that they worked so hard to get. They kept pressing the Blues until the end of the game, and it would be Andrea Perrotta once again converting for the Royals. Taking a pass from her teammate, she found a hole in the backline of the Blues and calmly curled a shot right past a sprawling Blues goalkeeper and into the net to give the Royals the lead in injury time. The team wheeled away in jubilation, and despite a late chance by the Blues, managed to close out the game for the win and the three points.

            After the game, Madison Hendry took some time to talk about what it meant to score her first PACWEST goal, and how it felt to equalize the game for her team. “I know that Andrea can make those perfect crosses, so I just had to track it out and let it go. It felt pretty good to get that equalizer. The team was working really hard and it was nice to be rewarded for it.” Her first goal of her PACWEST career is something that she would describe as a surprise. “I wasn’t really expecting to score.  I usually like setting up players, but it was good to get on the end of that one.”

            Extra-time heroine, Andrea Perrotta, also took some time after the game to talk about her game winning goal. “The game winning goal felt good. It really shows that hard work pays off. During our half time chat, we said we needed to work harder, and we came out and did that until the very last second”. The goal gives her four on the season, and puts her as one of the PACWEST’s elite scorers. Despite being one of the best in the league at putting them away, Perrotta remains ambitious. “Every game, I do my little visualization stuff. The thing that pops up in my head is my goal of getting to the top goal-scoring leader charts in the PACWEST.” She has a real shot at it too. After this week, she remains in the top five goal-scorers in the PACWEST, with less than a handful separating her from the top.

            After that thriller, one would think it would be impossible to top that. The men looked to prove them wrong. They got off to their routine start, attacking the ball at every opportunity. But it would be the Blues that struck first, scoring on a swift counter, punishing the Royals backline.

            The Royals would respond with another deep run into the Blues’ zone, only to be sent backwards once again. Catching the Royals backline flatfooted, the Blues strikers would punish once again with a vicious volley that put them up two goals. With the Royals on the backfoot, the Blues stamped their foot to the gas pedal and kept attacking. They would find another goal for a swift double volley and the three goal lead. The frustration mounting for the Royals was obvious, and unfortunately, the referee saw it too. A denial of a clear goal scoring opportunity saw the Royals down to ten men as one was sent for an early shower. The Blues would convert on the opportunity to put three more into the net by then end of game.

            The final score for the men’s game would end up being 6-0 for the Blues, and the Royals collapse against one of the country’s best.