The Carleton Ravens women’s soccer team tied 0-0 against their crosstown rivals, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, on Sept. 26 at MNP Park.
The Ravens took to the field at MNP Park and played the number two nationally ranked Gee-Gees. Going into the match the Gee-Gees were first in the division and undefeated, with six wins and one draw in seven games. With this draw, the Ravens passed the Ryerson Rams in the standings, to move into seventh place.
“Well, the biggest challenge of this game is rivalry. Ottawa and Carleton go back years, so it’s just about getting the girls up for it,” said Ravens head coach Raz El-Asmar.
The game was a back-and-forth affair, with both teams trading many scoring chances. Despite these chances, strong goaltending was on display from both keepers, Elizabeth MacDougall of the Ravens and Mélissa Pesant of the Gee-Gees.
The most vital play of the match came in the 54th minute, when Raven forward Sarah Royer was fighting for position with Gee-Gees striker Pilar Khoury in the box and Khoury was awarded a penalty kick.
Khoury then attempted to beat MacDougall low to the left side, but the Raven keeper managed to block the shot.
MacDougall said this was a make-or-break moment for her team.
“That I have to stop this, it was kind of the be-all and end-all moment, so I knew that if I stopped it we were still going to have a chance but if it went in that was it, so I stopped it,” MacDougall said.
This gave Carleton a boost, and the momentum swung slightly in their favour. Carleton’s best chance came during injury time of the second half, when Vanessa Germano found herself in the clear at the top of the box, but kicked it just over the crossbar.
The game ended up finishing with a 0-0 draw. Despite the fact they didn’t come away with a win, El-Asmar said he was happy with the effort his team gave.
“Well, the positive is that this is a quality side that we played against, and the fact that we were able to create chances and almost scored a couple of goals on that—that’s positive,” El-Asmar said.
El-Asmar also said going into the game they needed to win every ball possession and not give room to the Gee-Gees because of their speed up front. He also said the Ravens were able to shut down the Gee-Gees’ offence by taking away their time and space.
When addressing thoughts heading into the match, Gee-Gees coach David Bellmare said, “I was wondering what type of team we would be today—playing a crosstown rival it’s always filled with emotion that you don’t see in a normal game. So I would say that today we probably played a little tight, we weren’t at our best. Part of that’s due to us and a part of that is due to the performance that Carleton put in.”
The Ravens play next at Royal Military College on Oct. 3, and return home for a rematch against RMC at MNP Park on Oct. 7.
