Martlets soccer victoriously kicked off its season, defeating the Université de Montréal (UdeM) Carabins with a tight scoreline of 1-0. The players battled it out in the Percival Molson Memorial Stadium to energetic cheering from the nearly 800-person crowd.
McGill dominated the beginning of the first 45 minutes, controlling the ball well and consistently bringing it into UdeM’s box. During this time, midfielder Chloe Renaud registered several good shots, shooting some wide and others into the hands of UdeM goalkeeper Andréanne Dubeau.
Midway through the half, UdeM started to pick up the pace, maintaining better possession of the ball and putting pressure on McGill’s net—but with no result, as McGill goalkeeper Sophie Guilmette maintained tight control of her box. The score remained 0-0 for all of the first half, despite a brilliant chance in the 43rd minute in which Renaud received the ball and chipped it over the head of UdeM’s keeper, who was way off her line; the ball was bouncing in the direction of the net until UdeM defender Santy Malanda managed to catch up to it and make a goal-line clearance.
McGill registered a few good chances in the first five minutes of the second half. Then, in the 53rd minute, a dangerous shot from UdeM resulted in a masterful save by Guilmette, leading the crowd to erupt into cheers of “Let’s go Martlets” and “UdeM fatigué!”
The score remained level until the 78th minute when forward Arianne Lavoie received a fantastic cross across the face of the net and fired the ball on target; her shot was just saved by Dubeau, but set Renaud up perfectly to hit the rebound into an open net, putting McGill ahead with what ended up being the game’s only goal.
The game went steadily back-and-forth throughout the rest of the half, as McGill worked to stay attacking while also defending their one-goal lead. The crowd’s energy remained high, as they continued to chant and used rubber noise-makers to demonstrate their support for the Martlets. Going into stoppage time, they urged the referee to “Blow the whistle!” Despite having lost their previous preseason game, McGill opened their regular season with a win.
“Winning the first game at home against UdeM, which is a really good team, just scoring that goal, it meant everything to start the season on a really good note,” Renaud said.
The team has been training together since Aug. 5, and the home opener featured two rookies: Forward Vanessa Kumar started, and forward Estella Irvine subbed in. In her interview with The Tribune, Renaud pointed to the team-building they have been able to cultivate throughout their preseason.
“We’ve had a month to prepare, and throughout all this month we put all the energy together and created that chemistry and I think that today it showed,” Renaud said.
Head coach, Jose-Luis Valdes, told The Tribune that he hopes the team can keep up the spirit they showed in their home opener for the rest of their season.
“The girls did really well,” Valdes said. “[I am] quite happy with how they played and how they went about it. Montreal is a really good opponent, but we managed, we controlled when we had to control, and when it got stressful, the girls still were able to keep their composure and play well.”
“Hopefully in the next games, even if it’s not Montreal and it’s another opponent in the league, we still need to play with that same sort of energy and desire every single minute.”
Moment of the game:
The last play of the match was a UdeM shot that resulted in a shining save from Guilmette. Following the whistle, all of the McGill players rushed to her, carrying the excitement of starting their regular season off with a win.
Quotable:
“The people coming in have a great vibe. They’re getting along well, and we have a lot of leaders on the team, so it makes it easier to get a lot of people to help.”— Fourth-year captain and midfielder, Mara Bouchard
Stat corner:
Both McGill and UdeM registered 10 shots, but six of McGill’s shots were on goal, compared to only two of UdeM’s.
