Ottawa Fury News Release - www.ottawafury.com
Saturday, July 23, 2011
OTTAWA, ON - In a rematch of the regular season finale the Ottawa Fury nearly replicated their performance on Saturday afternoon with a 4-0 victory over the Toronto Lady Lynx to advance to Sunday’s W-League Central Conference Championship Final. A hat-trick from Melissa Busque and a goal from Mallory Outerbridge gave put the Fury in to the Conference Final for the ninth season in a row.
Ottawa will now await the winner of Laval and Quebec City who they will face on Sunday at 3:00pm with the victor advancing to the W-League Championship Final Four in Seattle.
Looking to learn from their 5-0 defeat in Ottawa last Saturday the Toronto Lady Lynx were very tight defensively early on looking to stifle Ottawa’s offensive trio of Outerbridge, Busque and Shufelt. The Lady Lynx held their own early, but a great run from Melissa Busque and some tremendous passing between her and Outerbridge opened the Lady Lynx defence putting Busque through for the opening goal in the 12th minute.
Ottawa continued to press and in the extreme heat their possession game highlighted by countless passes exhausted Toronto. In the 20th minute Outerbridge once again picked out Melissa Busque out edged around Lady Lynx goalkeeper Victoria Muccilli and potted home her second goal in 8 minutes. Down by two Toronto would find some energy, but Tiffany Cameron’s shadow, better known as Amanda Fancher limited any threat from the Lady Lynx striker.
Jessica Shufelt was sent free on a breakaway in the 31st minute and when Muccilli came out to challenge she picked out the W-League’s leading goalscorer Mallory Outerbridge who netted her first of the playoffs and 18th of the season to give the Fury a 3-0 lead that they carried into half-time.
With a host of substitutes awaiting their call into action the Fury Women came out fast to start the second 45 minute period and Toronto would again struggle in attempting to shutdown Outerbridge, Busque and Shufelt. In the 58th minute Melissa Busque completed the hat-trick as Outerbridge against picked out her teammate who sat wide-open in front of the Toronto goal to give the Fury a 4-0 lead and all but book their ticket to Sunday’s Conference Final.
The substitutions would flood into the game for Ottawa and the chance continued, but Muccilli made countless saves to keep Ottawa at bay. Jasmine Phillips faced little action in goal, but collects the shutout with central defender Amanda Fancher and Shay Eskridge proving dominant in the back four for the Fury.
Ottawa now awaits the winner of Saturday’s second semi-final between the Laval Comets and the Quebec City Amiral. Sunday’s Central Conference Championship Final will go at 3 p.m. at the Algonquin College Soccer Complex with the winner advancing to the W-League Championship Final Four in Seattle. The first 100 fans at tomorrow’s game will receive a pair of thunder sticks to help cheer the Fury to victory.