It was a tight checking affair as the top two St. Albert women's premier league teams faced off Tuesday night at the St. Albert Soccer Association. The St. Albert Impact Premier (10-2-1) defeated the St. Albert Impact/Inter SC three nil to lead the Impact Premier to their eighth straight victory.
“For the first 20 minutes, we really asserted ourselves against a really well organized and really hot team. It's always hard to play a good team when we're from the same club. It was competitive right to the end and I'm really proud of our performance based on the opponent that we had to play,” said Impact Premier head coach Chris Spaidal.
Premier forward Janai Martens lead the way with two unanswered goals, one in the first half, the other early into the second, giving her club some needed insurance. The first, a strong kick from the left wing that caught the post and in, a clever shot that goaltender Tianna Groenoelo had no chance of stopping. Martens’ second came off a corner kick, which saw the ball bounce to her in the slot, which she was able to put away. Casey Paplawski opened the scoring 25 minutes in, cutting inside on her defender before beating Groenoelo low with a hard shot.
The Impact/Inter SC club had troubles penetrating the offensive zone, and not being able to set up their offence led to few grade A scoring chances. On defence Marissa Duguay had some remarkable defensive plays, shutting down multiple scoring chances, most notably early in the first half as the Impact Premier were pushing for their first goal.
“We were very well organized from the back tonight, we have a couple of very seasoned centre backs who've played at a high level before. They kept us composed out there,” Spaidal said.
Impact/Inter SC head coach Rob Bourbannais echoed Spaidal's remarks, giving the Impact Premier team credit for coming out strong against his team.
“We didn't get going until the 20-minute mark, and by then they had built up a lot of momentum. After that the game settled into a more even match, but they're a top team in this league and you need to have a good game to compete against them,” Bourbannais said.
For the Impact/Inter SC team, despite the loss on Tuesday they are still enjoying their inaugural year in the Women's Premier League.
“It's been a very successful season so far. We knew we had a good group of girls, and we know because it's a young group they're not going to be as consistent week after week, but when they're on and they're playing their best game they can play with anyone in the league. That consistency usually comes with more experienced players,” Bourbannais said.
Impact/Inter SC has their next game tomorrow, facing off against Hearts United (2-9-1) who are looking to avoid losing three in a row after being shut out their previous two games.
Impact Premier play Tuesday against the second place Green & Gold (10-1-2), Impact Premier have a chance to jump them in the standings as they currently sit one point apart in the standings, each with five games remaining.
