One last time

> Women’s soccer preview: October 15-16

Davie Wong Sports Editor

We their playoff spot secured, the Royals women’s soccer team just has to see out the season to a finish and prepare for the playoffs. After all, does the rest of the season matter after you've made the playoffs? Well actually, yes, yes it does.

The next three games will be essential to determining where the Royals are seeded into the PACWEST Championships. They will also decide whether or not the Royals are regular season champions again or not. Although the team has clinched the playoffs, the battle for the regular season title is still roaring. This coming week, the Royals will do battle against one of the squads also competing for that title, the VIU Mariners.

The Mariners are coming off their bye week well-rested and new. But they are also coming into playing the Royals with a lot of rust on, as it will have been 14 days since their last PACWEST

Higher than a Falcon

competition. While they have likely improved since their last outing, the team will probably be looking back at the 2-2 tie against Quest leading into their bye week. Their failure to put that game away will be in the back of their minds when they come to face the Royals.

For the Royals, revenge will once again be a theme. The last time these two teams met, the Mariners put the Royals out of commission with a 3-1 win on the Island. This time around, the Royals will be looking to put them away. They come into the game off a dominating weekend against the former league-leading Langara Falcons. They have since claimed the league-leading title and have several of the PACWEST’s best players on the team. But the Royals will need to be defensively wary, lest the Mariner’s Chloe Gummer punish them. Gummer has been the Royals’ nemesis this year, scoring four out of five of her goals against Royals goalkeepers. If the team can shut her down, and the Royals play like they did against the Falcons, the Mariners

> Royals take the top of the table

Davie Wong Sports Editor

We the second half of

the season on the go, the importance of every matchup goes through the roof. So when you play your historic rivals in a game that could decide everything, you can just guess how intense that match is. This was not only the case for one of the matches for the Royals women’s soccer team, but two, as they took on their rivals the Langara Falcons in a doubleheader.

The action got started on Saturday at Musqueam Park under poor weather conditions. The rain came down in gallons but both sides were determined to see the match through. With so much on the line, neither team wanted to wait any longer. The action got underway despite the weather, but the rain had an unmistakable effect on the game. The wet ball made passes harder to receive, and for the most part of the first half of the game, it was hard for either

See footage from the game on the Other Press

side to string together passes. That changed dramatically in the second half, as the team came out and dominated the Falcons. The Royals found goals from Andrea Perrotta, Taylor Wettig, and Mikayla Hamilton, in a huge second-half effort. The Falcons had a couple efforts near the end of the game, but were met by Royals keeper Alexa Gazzola, who kept them off the scoresheet. With that win in the books, the

shouldn't stand a chance.

After that game, the team hits the road to visit the Quest Kermodes. The last time these two met, the Kermodes barely scored, only to have the Royals score right back to take the tie. The Kermodes will be fighting for their playoff lives, as they will need to win their last three games and for outcomes elsewhere to go their way. Desperation will be evident in the Kermodes’ play, but the Royals need to stand stalwart against it. It will be a hard game, but the Royals should pull out a win.

Overall, ’'m thinking the team can grab at least four points here. While six points is the goal, it’s understandable if the Mariner's game results in a draw. Two points would really be a hard result to take after their play against Langara, while zero points is nearly unthinkable.

You can watch the Royals host the Mariners on Saturday at 1 p.m., at Cunnings Field. Come and see if the team can repeat history and take one step closer to winning the regular season title.

Photo by Davie Wong

team enjoyed their brief moment in the pouring rain before heading home to prepare for the next

day, where the Falcons would be coming to visit them.

Although the team had won three points from the Falcons the day before, everyone knew that six was the ultimate goal. The intensity from Saturday’s match carried over to Sunday, and the team made sure the Falcons got a very warm welcome to the

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WOMEN'S SOCCER

INSTITUTION CONF PTS DOUGLAS 4-2-3 15 LANGARA 4-3-2 14 CAPILANO 3-2-3 12 VIU 2-1-5 u QUEST 0-5-3 3

MEN'S SOCCER

INSTITUTION CONF PTS CAPILANO 7-0-1 22 VIU 43-1 13 DOUGLAS 4-4-1 B3 QUEST 2-5-1 7 LANGARA 1-6-2 5

Royals’ home.

Mikayla Hamilton did so in style, cashing in on two goals in gorgeous fashion, sliding her shots into the bottom left hand corner each time. Momentum carried the team from there, as they kept attacking the Langara side, keeping possession out of their end. Andrea Perrotta struck the woodworks with a fantastically placed shot that almost gave the Royals three.

Going into the second half, first-year winger Samantha Frketich exchanged Perrotta’s bad luck for a goal of her own, scoring ona Mikayla Hamilton cross. The Royals would finish the rout with a fourth goal from Michelle Wessa. The Falcons hardly had a chance. Whenever they did get into the Royals’ third, Alexa Gazzola was more than ready for them, and kept them out for the clean sheet.

This weekend’s games marked multiple milestones for the Royals. Hamilton scored three on the weekend to jump her to five on the season and tie her for first.

Andrea Perrotta also scored once this weekend, and sits on five for the season. Alexa Gazzola tallied her second and third shutout

in her sixth and seventh game. She now leads the PACWEST in shutouts, and goals conceded per go minutes played with an insane ratio of 0.67.

The team also snagged six points from the league leaders, putting them at first place in the PACWEST conference, and locking in their place in the PACWEST playoffs, where they will be looking to repeat as champions.

After the game, Coach Chris Laxton spoke about how it felt to see his team hand their rivals such heavy losses. “Those were two massive performances. We were strong in the back, our midfield kept them contained and were able to keep us going forward, and our forwards came up big. We limited them to a couple of corner kicks and through balls that we dealt with, and we put them under pressure.”