Grace Mwasalla slots her 30th career CW regular season goal past Winnipeg goalkeeper Camille Forbes on Saturday (Norman Bo photo).
Grace Mwasalla slots her 30th career CW regular season goal past Winnipeg goalkeeper Camille Forbes on Saturday (Norman Bo photo).
October 5, 2024

Mwasalla scores 30th career goal and Griffins don't allow a shot attempt in 4-0 win over Wesmen

Box Score

Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – Grace Mwasalla became the 15th player in Canada West women's soccer history to score her 30th career goal, also adding an assist, as the MacEwan Griffins rolled to a dominant 4-0 win over the Winnipeg Wesmen on Saturday afternoon.

In a show of how lopsided the contest truly was, the Griffins outshot the Wesmen 38-0 (23-0 on goal). 

They didn't allow a single shot attempt as the contest was mostly played in the Winnipeg half.

In fact, Griffins goalkeeper Elizabeth Knight's toughest play on the day was a hard back pass from teammate Brynn Hobal in the first half where she had to lunge quickly to block it from going into the net. The zero save goose-egg gives Knight 3.5 shutouts on the season. 

"We're in a good run of form in having four consecutive clean sheets," said Griffins head coach Dean Cordeiro. "We've really prided ourselves in locking down our defensive half and I think we've done a good job.

"We know we're capable of putting the ball in the back of the net, so if we can take care of that side of the ball, we're going to put ourselves in a good spot."

With the result, the Griffins have moved into a tie for top spot in the Prairie Division with Calgary at 7-1-1 after the Dinos settled for a 1-1 draw at Saskatchewan on Saturday.

"We've definitely, over the last two weeks, talked about our counter-press and just pressing in general, trying to get the ball back as quick as possible," said Mwasalla. "They weren't really in our half much this game and that's kind of the DNA we want to continue with the rest of the season."

MacEwan's career points and goals leader picked up an assist on Sophie Lavallee's game-winner, which came at the 45+8 mark after nine minutes of stoppage time was added to the first half when Winnipeg's Jadyn Friesen suffered an injury at midfield and had to be carried off.

Alyx Henderson put in a great cross that Mwasalla got a shoulder on before it dropped onto Lavallee's boot for a tap in.

It was almost a relief for the Griffins to finally score after putting a ton of pressure on Winnipeg goalkeeper Camille Forbes, who most notably stopped an early point-blank blast from Hannah Harper from 15 feet away.

In the second half, though, the Griffins left little doubt as to what the result would be as Mwasalla made it 2-0 in the 57th, taking a through ball from Harper and slotting it in the side netting. It's her 30th career CW regular season tally – the first MacEwan player to reach the mark.

"It means a little more because I've been in a little slump recently, so to finally get back on the scoresheet is really incredible and I'm really happy with the 30 mark," said Mwasalla.

After Harper was tripped in the box by Silvana Scaramuzzi, who was given a yellow card on the play, Anneke Odinga converted her third PK of the season to make it 3-0 in the 71st minute. It also broke a program record for the most PKs by a Griffin in a CW campaign.

Bryn Mortensen scored her first career goal in the 77th off a Grace Schimpf corner kick to cap the offensive explosion. Schimpf reached a special milestone on the afternoon with her 100th career corner kick, just the second MacEwan player to do so.

"Whenever you're doing things well, those are byproducts," said Cordeiro. "You're getting people hitting milestones and reaching great accomplishments, and just playing the game the right way."

 Paige Colby, left, Mariah Arnott and Amelia Russo mob Anneke Odinga after she scored her third PK goal of the season, breaking the program record (Norman Bo photo).

Rookie midfielder Paige Colby, subbed in at half-time, was named the Griffins' MVP for the first time. 

"It's so exciting," she said. "It feels good."

Colby nearly scored on two hard strikes from inside the box, but one was stopped on the line by Sydney Butler's face and the other was parried away in a terrific diving stop by Forbes.

"I just love the energy and how she played today," said Cordeiro. "She really gave us a spark and that's what we want from our game-changers. As a first year, I thought she really stepped up today."

Forbes finished with 18 saves, tied for the sixth most ever in a Canada West game (the record is 21). 

"This was a day we got four, but credit their goalkeeper," said Cordeiro. "She stood on her head. We really started challenging her and she made some big, big saves."

MacEwan will host Manitoba on Sunday (11 a.m., Edmonton Scottish, Canada West TV), while Winnipeg visits Alberta.