Wednesday, July 17, 2013
OTTAWA, Ontario -- Despite finishing second in their division for the first time in 10 years, the Fury Women seemed unfazed having to take a longer route through the post-season and put up five goals en route to a 5-1 victory over rivals the Toronto Lady Lynx. Ottawa advances to Saturday’s Central Conference Championship against the Laval Comets at 4 p.m. ET, with the winner advancing to the 2013 W-League Championships, presented by Nike.
The Fury came out a determined side on Wednesday night and despite the intense temperature they boasted a high tempo to start. Taylor Uhl missed a chance early after Emily Gielnik’s cross took an odd deflection across the face of goal. On the ensuing corner Karen Gurnon’s header was parried off the goal line and the rebound was cleared away.
After play settled for a brief period of time, Lisa-Marie Woods made a run through the midfield beating six Lady Lynx players before smashing a shot past Hope Sabadash to open the scoring for the home side. Ottawa’s pressure continued and 10 minutes later Tessa Gavilsky found a loose ball off a Lisa-Marie Woods corner and poked the Fury into a 2-0 lead after 28 minutes.
The goal gave the Fury attackers a massive boost of confidence, forcing Sabadash to remain sharp as she robbed Gielnik on a breakaway and stopped a header from Uhl at close range. With halftime looming the Lady Lynx found some life with several chances in front of goal which eventually led to a penalty kick after a Fury defender was judged to have handled the ball in the area. Lady Lynx leading scorer Furtuna Velaj beat Jasmine Phillips to pull the visitors within one at halftime.
After pulling a goal back just before half, the Lady Lynx did themselves no favors to start the second as Woods produced another individual effort as she blew past three defenders at the top of the box before hammering home her second of the game to restore the two-goal Fury lead. Gielnik would then produce another two chances in quick succession, but remained snake-bitten. In the 73rd minute the drought finally endED for her, however, as Gielnik took a great feed from Karen Gurnon before smashing a shot past Sabadash to put the game out of reach with Ottawa leading 4-1.
The goal would lead to a fury of substitutes from Ottawa with Youth Academy alums Lauren Hughes, Emma Donnelly and Kayla Adamek all getting into the game. In the 86th minute Kinley McNicoll’s speed forced a turnover and after she rounded the keeper she tucked the ball back across the face of goal where Hughes netted her first goal of the season. Ottawa out-shot the visitors 15-2 en route to a 5-1 win as they advance to Saturday’s Central Conference Championship in Laval. Ottawa, which is 0-2-1 against the Comets this season, will look to avenge its regular season results against the team that ended their run of division championships.