Falcons Meet Royals
It's a sudden death semifinal on the women's side of the bracket
#2 Langara Falcons vs. #3 Douglas Royals – Saturday October 25, 12:00pm | WATCH HERE
The Falcons and Royals square off in the women’s semi-final on Saturday with the winner advancing to the PACWEST gold medal game on Sunday.
They met four times during the campaign, each time the final was settled by just a single goal, other than a 1-1 tie. The Falcons earned a pair of 1-0 clean sheets in the seasonal series, and the Royals took the last meeting 1-0 on October 18th when Ashlynn Grim tallied the loner marker in the 80th minute. The Falcons outscored the Royals in the series 3-2 with clearly not many offensive opportunities.
These two teams are clearly very even with solid forwards, fast midfielders, a good backline and a keeper that can steal a save or two. Kate Bonozew of the Falcons recorded four clean sheets during the season while Royals’ keeper Vanessa Chung countered with three including the final meeting against the Falcons where she kept it scoreless with a massive save on a penalty kick in the 50th minute which many say was the play of the game.
Offensively the Royals will lean on Isabelle Dobbin who was the co-scoring leader this year with seven goals. After her production, the Royals haven’t had any secondary scoring as no other player on the roster has more than one goal. They have one win in their last five games, that lone win was over the team they will face on Saturday.
The Falcons are making their first playoff appearance since 2017 and will need to find some offence. They have been relatively quiet all year and are the lowest scoring team of the three in the postseason. Both Madison Hung and Erin Bhandal are their leading scorers with two goals. They limp into the championship tournament without a victory since September 21st, a span of six games.
The last time the Falcons and Royals met in the championship tournament was when the Ice Bucket Challenge swept across the world…the year was 2014. The Falcons won that semi with a 2-1 victory and would eventually win a PACWEST silver medal, their last medal in women’s soccer.
The winner on Saturday will meet the VIU Mariners on Sunday afternoon in the gold medal match.