The Blues Are Golden
The Capilano Blues win gold with a 2-1 victory
Capilano Blues 2
Douglas Royals 1
After an incredible gold medal game the Capilano Blues punch their ticket to the CCAA national championship and their first PACWEST title since 2007 with a 2-1 overtime victory.
The first half was dominated by the Blues controlling the play and the ball generating several offensive opportunities. However Royals’ keeper Elisha Machado was simply outstanding making various highlight reel saves keeping the game scoreless.
The Royals finally generated a chance of their own breaking past the pinching Blues defence in the 25th minute when Christine Singh got the pass and made no mistake blasting a shot past Sabrina Lam to give her club the lead.
From there Machado cranked up her game continuously finding an extra gear to make a stop. In all she made eight saves and none of them were easy.
In the second half the game became very physical with a pair of yellow cards being issued and players being knocked down at each end of the pitch.
With the Royals clinging to one-goal lead the game went into injury time and with what seemed like seconds left in the game, the Blues were awarded a penalty kick. Former All-Canadian and Douglas Royal Andrea Perrotta made no mistake and scored to tie the game pushing it to overtime.
Then again with time winding down in the second half of overtime, All-Star Aynsley Hurtado ripped a shot from the top of the box to score in the 119th minute. The goal would stand as the championship winning marker giving the Blues the title.
They will now represent the PACWEST at the national championship November 10-13 at Humber College in Toronto.
Following the game the tournament awards were handed out to the following:
Top Goal Keeper – Elisha Machado – Douglas Royals
Top Defender – Hannah dela Cruz – Douglas Royals
Top Midfielder – Claire Ye – Capilano Blues
Top Forward – Catrina Olstrom – Capilano Blues
Tournament MVP – Catrina Olstrom – Capilano Blues
Gold Medal Players of the Game:
Aynsley Hurtado – Capilano Blues
Jessica Parks – Douglas Royals