Les Rouges ride early scoring burst to bounce Bobcats

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This article was published 28/10/2019 (2269 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTERBURNE — On a short week and short handed, the Brandon University Bobcats fell behind early and couldn’t rally to extend their season one more day.

It took less than 10 minutes for Angel Pionela to put the Université de Saint-Boniface Les Rouges ahead in the Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference women’s soccer semifinals, and Stephanie Jones quadrupled that lead before the halftime whistle.

Though the Bobcats played the second 45 minutes to a draw, the final result was a 5-2 defeat at Providence University College on Saturday that saw them bow out short of the final for the first time since joining the MCAC in 2014.

BU may have fielded a team in rebuilding mode, but that didn’t make it any easier for fourth-year Kirstin Surovy, who has played her final outdoor game for the school.

“I’m obviously disappointed with the result. I wanted it, I know the whole team wanted it, it just wasn’t in the cards for us today,” she said, sporting a uniform with more mud than Bobcat Blue and Yellow visible.

“We came out flat and got behind really early in the first half but we fought hard and left our hearts on the field. We managed to come back with a couple of goals to show them we are a good team, we’re going to fight, we’re better than that.”

Brandon needed its massive 2-1 victory over Assiniboine Community College on Tuesday — a game worth double points after their first two were postponed — to make the playoffs. That win came at the expense of veteran starters Hasana Church and Faythe Miller, who both suffered concussions in the regular season finale.

Fortunately, the Bobcats got defenders Chelsea Plett and Naomi Plett back for the playoffs, but needed some firepower up front. So Surovy lined up as an attacking midfielder for the first time in her MCAC career.

“Both of them are strong defenders, and just knowing we had them in the back line going into this weekend and had a hole to fill with Hasana at attacking mid, the coaches made the decision to move me up,” Surovy said.

Few defenders could have stopped the top-ranked Saint-Boniface squad up front, and Jones took advantage of every opportunity she got. The striker pounced on two rebounds to beat Brandon keeper Emily Scramstad in the opening frame.

BU came back from the break with energy, and Surovy sprung second-year striker Ashley Seekings through the USB back line. She launched a rocket over goalie Daneige Edey and into the top-left corner of the net from 25 yards to cut the deficit to 4-1 a few minutes into the second half.

Les Rouges restored the lead and kept it most of the way, and the Bobcats fought harder and harder on the muddy, damp field. Surovy crumpled with a calf cramp with about five minutes left in the match, but refused to be substituted out. After a quick massage and stretch, she came back out and delivered another perfect ball to Seekings, who buried it with her first touch.

“It’s my senior year, it’s my last five minutes to play, I was getting back out there,” Surovy said. “I saw Blair (Bodie) get the ball on the sideline, I called for a through ball, she sent me a beautiful one right to the corner where I wanted it. I took a touch and I knew Ashley was going to be right in front of the net.

“I put it in front and had faith she would connect and get it in the back of the net, and that’s exactly what she did.”

The final score didn’t sit well with the BU squad.

“It’s a kick to the face,” said third-year midfielder Kiera Riehl, adding it should help the group grow.

“Now they’ll know how it feels to lose and they’ll want to make sure we make it to the next round next year. And we knew this year was going to be a growing year because we lost more than 10 players.

“USB was really good. We had a hard time playing against them the last couple of games. We knew it was going to be hard (Saturday), we had a lot of injuries and a lot of players that had to step up and play positions they had never played before. We played good, considering that.”

Les Rouges went on to win the championship on Sunday, beating the Pilots 2-0.

Providence reached the final by dropping the Red River College Rebels 3-0 on Saturday as the league’s top scorer Makayla Myer collected a hat trick.

It’s a rare year where the Bobcats won’t have a banner to show for their efforts, but certainly not one where they didn’t fight right up to the last game, and the last minute.

“The negative result is one thing, but to know we left our hearts out on the field, we showed a lot of resilience by coming out and scoring those two goals, especially scoring one in the last five minutes,” Surovy said. “Just showing them we’re not giving up, no matter how much of a deficit we’re in, that’s something I can be proud of leaving the league.”

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