OAKVILLE, Ont. - The Sheridan Bruins women's soccer team (3-3 OCAA) dodged more than few bullets in the second half of their Homecoming contest against their rivals from Humber, but couldn't sneak past all of them, as Humber broke a 1-1 tie in the 86th minute, sending the Double-Blue to a 2-1 defeat.
"I thought we played the best game that we've played so far this year. The girls worked hard for each other, and that's what always matters," head coach Paul Angelini said. "In the end, the score was probably a proper reflection of the game. Soccer is never about how many chances you generate, it's about how many you put away. So even though they generated a lot more than we did in that second half, we thought that maybe we could sneak out a point, but it wasn't meant to be, so we move onto the next one."
It had been an uphill climb the whole way, after Humber's Danielle Canhoto opened the scoring in the second minute.
Sheridan pulled level in the 32nd minute, after Cassidy Chantler lofted a ball over the head of the Humber keeper.
The visitors applied a large amount of pressure in the second half, but the Double-Blue held strong, despite the extreme danger presented often.
Savanna Wood made a pair of key stops on back-to-back plays, just after the 70 minute mark. On the second, Humber nearly re-directed the rebound into an unprotected goal, but clanged it off the post.
Nearing the 80 minute mark, Wood came off her line to try and gather a ball near the top of the box, and even though it skipped past her, Kendra Challis was able to track back and clear it off the line.
All of that effort was for not though, when Claudia Piazza's free kick from distance found a home in the Bruin net.
The team will travel to UTM on Oct. 4 (4:30pm) for the away leg of the Region of Peel derby, and Angelini is hoping his squad can maintain the same level they executed at today.
"With how hard we worked today, I don't think we'll do a lot of fitness," he said of their practice plan heading into the match-up. "At this point in the season, it's just as much about maintenance," he said. "So we'll do a little bit of work with the ball at our feet and then take a refresher through our set plays."
