The Centennial Women's Soccer team beat the Cambrian Golden Shield 4-0, remaining atop the OCAA standings. After a scoreless first half, Nailah Rowe broke through the Golden Shield early in the second to put the Colts up 1-0. Barely 10 minutes later, Rowe found herself back on the right side of the field with another opportunity. Again, just inside the 18-yard box, she beat her defender on a quick turn and sent the ball, once more, just over the Golden Shield's goalkeeper and into the left side of the net. Colts go up 2-0.

The only difference between the two goals was that Rowe attacked the second one with a small adjustment. "I hit it with my other foot. I had to keep it balanced," she said."Coming into the second half, that was our goal—to be a bigger threat."

From there, the game's pace shifted in the Colts' favour. "I feel like that was what we needed to pick up the momentum in the game and get off shots that weren't just at the keeper," Rowe said. "I feel like everybody that took shots, myself included, was very guilty of just hitting the keeper."

With these two goals, Rowe's total for the season jumps to five, tying Soledad Vazquez-Cicutto for the Colts player with the most goals this season. With 20 minutes left in the game, Vazquez-Cicutto extended the Colts' lead to three with a perfect header into the top of the net.

With less than five minutes left, Vanessa Lima found the net to stretch the Centennial lead to 4-0. Lima, who showed off her fancy footwork across the field throughout the game, was key to many Colts' chances, beating her defenders in critical situations and sending beautiful through passes inside the box. "Honestly, I'm a flashy player, no matter the score. But of course, we were up by a few goals already, so I was like, I'm going to put on a little Lima flick, the Lima turn, and get the fans entertained," Lima said after the match.

In the first 45 minutes, Cambrian focused on defence, keeping the Colts surrounded on every attempt they made at the box, forcing Centennial up the sidelines and clogging the middle.

At halftime, Head Coach Rich Hirst said the plan to combat the Golden Shield's defence was to "try and move them." "Cambrian's an excellent team with defensive organization, so it was about really trying to pull them out, away from the goal, move them around a little bit, play side to side, so we could start to open them up a bit more because they were holding a great defensive shape," he said.

The Colts maintained possession for most of the game, not rushing their offense, and diligently keeping control, even while on defense, with solid passing. The Colts play next on Oct. 2 at home, and Hirst said the team is already thinking about that game. "For us, in about 10 minutes, we'll forget about this game and move on to the next one. The way we go about our business is day-to-day."

By: Sarah Maat 

Photo C/O Reese Kaleekkal