SYDNEY: Two women’s soccer players from the Fall River and Enfield areas played a vital role in their CBU Capers women’s soccer team punching their ticket to nationals.
At the Atlantic University Sport women’s soccer championship, Fall River’s Ellie Lancaster and scoring forward Grace Hannaford of Enfield helped their Capers to a 2-0 win over the UNB Reds in the championship final on a cool Sunday afternoon.
The championship was played at ST F.X. in Antigonish.
Lancaster said winning the championship is an unreal feeling.
“Since we’ve won it doesn’t feel like it’s real,” Lancaster told The Laker News on Oct. 28 in an interview.
“We’ve worked so hard this whole season day in and day out and our efforts have definitely paid off.”
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The Lockview High alum came up with several sensational saves to keep the shutout in tact midway through the game, like this one.
With the REDS searching for the equalizer – in the 30th minute – UNB striker Jillian Larose (Ottawa, ON) fed a sensational diagonal through ball to Eva Pavlov (Bedford, NS), who got behind the Capers’ defenders, but her cross to a teammate was gobbled up by Lancaster who stretched out to intercept the feed.
In the 60th minute, after Alliyah Rowe won a battle for possession, she led a rush before deftly flicking a pass to the wing with the outside of her left foot that Paige Allaby (Rothesay, NB) collected.
She then crossed a bounding ball that found Hannaford on the far side of the 18-yard box.
The third-leading scorer in the AUS regular season smartly settled it and then laced a low shot inside the far goal post to provide an insurance marker and double the CBU edge to 2-0.
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A few minutes later, UNB tried to answer but Julia Currie (Sydney, NS), who did not get the volley she wanted, could not solve Lancaster.
The CAPERS, who only surrendered 10 goals during the AUS regular season, put up a brick wall defensively down the stretch to secure the championship-winning shutout.
UNB garnered a couple of corner kicks in stoppage time, but they came up empty.
Lancaster said winning the championship means the world, and takes a bit of the taste from 2023, a 2-1 loss on home soil to St. F.X.
“It feels so good to be wearing a white hat this year,” she said. “This team deserves it; we have put our blood sweat and tears into every game and it all came out for us in the end.”
But she said the Capers aren’t done yet.
“AUS was only the first step, nationals is our next battle,” she said.
The team was to celebrate the AUS championship win on Monday night, but then work begins Tuesday for U-Sport nationals.
“We will work hard until nationals and all we can do is leave it all out there,” she said.
With information from CBU Capers recap by Corey LeBlanc
