Griffins' stingy play on full display in promising preseason run ahead of Sept. 8 opener
Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – If preseason play is any indication, stinginess is back in vogue on the MacEwan women's soccer team.
They conceded just one goal against in three games against Canada West opponents, while also blanking Carroll College of Helena, MT.
Although MacEwan allowed two in a 3-2 win over NAIT to open their exhibition slate on Aug. 20, the Griffins went 3-0-2 in five preseason contests and are looking sharp a little more than a week out from the start of the Canada West regular season.
"In particular, of late, we've had three clean sheets in the last four games, so definitely from a defending side of things we're where we want to be," said head coach Dean Cordeiro of three matches in Lethbridge – a 3-0 win over Carroll, a 4-0 triumph over Regina, and a 1-1 tie with Mount Royal – and a 0-0 tie with Saskatchewan in Lloydminster on Tuesday.
"We were able to score eight goals over those matches (and 11 tallies in five preseason games), so that was good as well," he added. "A goal eluded us on Tuesday. Saskatchewan's a very strong, well organized team. Jerson (Barandica-Hamilton, head coach) has done a great job there. We hit a couple of crossbars and a couple of goals were disallowed due to offsides.
"We did a lot of great things; it was a really good last match to get us prepped for the season to start. Overall, camp served its purpose and we're excited to get going."
Griffins players have now been released back to their club teams for this weekend's adult club provincials in Edmonton and Calgary. They'll hit the practice field again on Tuesday in heavy preparation for their Canada West opener on Sept. 8 at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C. (2 p.m. MT, Canada West TV).
"It will be all systems go in preparation for TRU and UBCO (on Sept. 9, 2 p.m. MT in Kelowna, Canada West TV)," said Cordeiro. "You want to come flying out of the gate. It's important to get off to a good start. We're going to be on the road and it's never easy on the road, so we want to make sure that we're sharp.
"We're going to look to improve on a few things that we took away from preseason that we need to adjust so that we're a little bit sharper when it comes to the season and the points are for real."
FREE KICKS … Jamie Erickson led the Griffins in preseason scoring with three goals, while Suekiana Choucair potted two … Singles went to Brittany Costa, Samantha Gouveia, Salma Kamel, Cassandra Loza, Maya Morrell and Raeghan McCarthy … With starting goalkeeper Emily Burns away with Team Canada at the 2018 World University Futsal Championship in Kazakhstan, Bianca Castillo showed well with two shutouts … Burns, who helped Canada finish sixth in Kazakhstan, returned for MacEwan's last preseason game against Saskatchewan on Tuesday, earning the clean sheet.
