Meagan/Meghan connection clicking as Griffins wrap up perfect preseason
Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
Meagan to Meghan. That's a call Griffins women's soccer fans could be hearing a lot of this season if recent non-conference action is any indication.
Meagan Lemoine scored the final goal of the game and set up Meghan Oram for one of her two tallies as the Griffins finished a five-game preseason schedule with a 4-2 win over tournament host Regina at the eight-team Great Plains Challenge on Friday.
Lemoine also scored the game-winning goal for the Griffins in a 2-1 victory over Winnipeg on Thursday.
"They were fantastic," said Cordeiro. "Meghan Oram was our player of the game. Just the execution of her runs, the conviction of her finishes … she's been clicking on all cylinders, which is great to see.
"She's formed a great partnership with Meagan Lemoine. They've been finding each other throughout preseason, which is good. We hope those two, along with the other attacking players will continue to have that type of chemistry."
Lemoine is back with the Griffins this season after taking 2016 off from Canada West soccer, but in 2015, she led MacEwan in scoring with six goals in and eight points in 14 matches. Oram is heading into her second season with the Griffins after transferring from NCAA Div. 1 University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Oram opened the scoring on Friday in the seventh minute before Regina levelled on Brianna Wright's 11th-minute tally. But Oram struck again in the 16th only to see the Cougars tie it again on Daniela Castro's goal in the 45th. But second-half markers from Sarah Riddle and Lemoine put the contest away.
"We're getting stronger each match," said Cordeiro. "That's what we were expecting, what we were hoping for. In all the matches, all of our 18 got into the games, which is very important as we continue to grow as a group. And we got stronger as the week went on, particularly here in Regina, which is exciting.
"We finished off with our best performance today, which when you conclude a tournament and there's tired legs at the end of a week, that's what you're looking for, so it was nice to see."
MacEwan opened the week with a 1-0 win over Mount Royal, a team they beat in the opening round of the 2016 Canada West playoffs by the same score.
Thus, the Griffins finish their exhibition slate with a perfect 5-0 record – a mark that means little if they don't keep up the momentum going into the season when it begins with their home opener on Sept. 8 vs. UBC-Okanagan (7 p.m., Jasper Place Bowl).
"The exciting thing for us is over our five preseason matches here, we've scored, I think, 14 goals and only conceded three," said Cordeiro. "I think that there is something that's quite impressive. We went into this off-season wanting to address some of our scoring woes from last season and we're looking like that's heading in the right direction.
"With that being said, the one thing that's very apparent (in Regina) from the eight teams at the competition is everybody's gotten stronger. The league is very competitive. Every team is good and we've got to be ready.
"Going into our fourth year we're not going to catch anybody by surprise."
And if there is a focus for training next week, it's that the usually stingy Griffins uncharacteristically gave up two goals against Regina. In 2016, they only allowed more than one goal in a game once.
"We're happy that we scored four goals, but it's a little bit disappointing that we let two goals against on moments that could have been prevented," said Cordeiro. "But any time you get scored on, it's a learning moment. We're going to work hard in training to address some of those things."
