The Trinity Western Spartans are through to the final four.
Natalie Boyd opened the scoring and Krista Gommeringer added a pair of second-half goals in a 3-0 quarter-final victory over the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks in Canadian Interuniversity Sport women’s soccer national championships in Toronto on Nov. 7.
Boyd opened the scoring just before the half as Gommeringer sent a corner kick that deflected off her teammate and past Golden Hawks’ keeper Katrina Ward.
“It was a pretty even first half and then we were fortunate to score an opportunistic goal that settled our nerves a little bit,” said Trinity Western coach Graham Roxburgh.
“I thought we played extremely well in the second half and I’m really pleased with that.”
The Golden Hawks nearly tied the score in the 53rd minute but Spartans keeper Rachel Bedek came up with the huge save.
The Spartans extended their lead to two goals in the 69th minute when Jessica King sent a cross to Gommeringer, who head the ball in off the crossbar.
Gommeringer notched her second of the game in the 86th minute as she intercepted a Laurier header and made no mistake in giving her team a 3-0 advantage.
“The score is not a reflection of the game at all,” said Laurier head coach Barry MacLean. “On balance of play, we were as good as they were throughout the game. We had a couple of great chances. I think a couple of goalkeeping errors are the difference in the game and the third goal we were pushed forward and we gave away the goal.”
The Spartans now face the Cape Breton Capers, the Atlantic University Sport champion, in one of the semifinals on Nov. 9.
The other semifinal pits Alberta vs. Montreal.
