Andersson, Orellana strike as women's Huskies shutout Eagles
In a shortened season where resolve matters just as much as results, the Keyano Huskies women's soccer team showed both Sunday at Shell Place with a 2-0 victory against The King's University Eagles.
Goals by Nathalie Andersson and Natalie Orellana as well as an excellent defensive showcase throughout helped pave the way for the Huskies to move their record to 1-1-0 on the season.
"That always helps when it's a good win and not just scraping by," said head coach Niels Slotboom. "The girls dominated the game and executed our game plan finally from beginning to end.
"It was nice; definitely a good first win."
The women's Huskies picked up from the positive portions of Saturday's narrow 2-1 defeat, controlling play for longer stretches and giving goalkeeper Chloe Gamblemore than a manageable time in net where she snuffed out the few opportunities to get to her.
On the offensive side of the ball, the same chances came the Huskies way with similar result initially. While the chances were moving in a positive direction, the Huskies were still narrowly missing the net or finding the Eagles' goalkeeper with their placements.
That all changed in the 79th minute as off a clear by the Eagles, the Huskies midfield pressured a loose ball, which Amber Deepwon and sent over to Orellana in the middle. Shifting to Orellana's right was Andersson, who used the open space by both defenders drawing into Orellana to place a perfect shot to the edge of the net.
"That's what you need when you're attacking players, it's always nice when you finally get your first goal to get things going," said Slotboom. "Hopefully they can maintain that now and they're off to the races."
With the Eagles searching for the tying goal late, the Huskies went in search of an insurance goal and found it in the 89th minute. A well-timed lead pass from Blanca Palavecino sent Skylar Robertson down the wing with the ball where placed a cross pass which was taken by Orellana.
She spun around with the ball and shot it into the far side of the net past the outstretched arms of the goalkeeper to put the game to bed. Player of the game Angalena Cross spoke about how yesterday's result influenced the team's start and drive Sunday.
"Confidence is definitely a lot higher than it was yesterday, but we came into it hard because of yesterday too," said Cross. "We really wanted a win out of this weekend, but yeah morale is definitely way better than it was after we left the field yesterday."
Slotboom credited his side with keeping their game plan consistent outside of a few small bumps here and there that didn't threaten the Huskies lead on the scoresheet.
"The main thing was that we were able to keep to our game plan and implement it from the beginning all the way until the end," he added.
Through two games, the Huskies sit a 1-1-0, good for third in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference's North Division. That has them in the thick of the playoff race, where seeding has a great importance placed upon it.
Already a third of the way through their regular season schedule, Slotboom knew his side would need to replicate efforts like that moving forward.
"It's a crazy short season and things change so quickly now," he said. "The points are worth twice as much because you're only playing each other once.
"It's going to be a lot harder because it's hard to prep for a team you've never played against."
The Huskies head out onto the road for their next contest, taking on the Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves on Sunday, September 26 in Grande Prairie, Alta.