July 16, 2011 W-League--Ottawa Fury vs Toronto Lady Lynx (from www.ottawafury.com)
Fury Stay Perfect Prepare to host Conference Finals next weekend Ottawa Fury News Release - www.ottawafury.com Saturday, July 16, 2011 OTTAWA, Ontario - It was a fitting end to a spectacular regular season for the Ottawa Fury Women who downed the Toronto Lady Lynx on Saturday night by a 5-0 score to clinch their first-ever perfect regular season going 12-0-0 and becoming only the sixth W-League team to achieve this feat. Mallory Outerbridge (pictured) was in her regular form opening the scoring early and completely a hat-trick to finish the season with a league-leading 17 goals, one goal shy of Kelly Parker's Fury season-best of 18. With a win the Fury would ensure that they face the Toronto Lady Lynx in the Central Conference Semi-Finals next Saturday and if the Fury were looking to send a message to Toronto they did it early and often in the first half. Less than two minutes into the game Mallory Outerbridge was sprung by a perfectly weighted pass from Alyssa Lagonia and the W-League's leading scorer picked out the far post to pull the Fury ahead. The strike-force of Outerbridge, Shufelt and Busque were a force to be reckoned with all afternoon making tireless runs in behind the Lynx defence that was exposed on several occasions Saturday night. In the 19th minute Melissa Busque's cross was mishandled by to Toronto defenders and Mallory Outerbridge was there to clean up the mess to slot home her 16th of the season. The flood gates opened the very next minute Lagonia picked out Melissa Busque this time who rifled home her 3rd of the season to all but put the Lady Lynx out of it. With Outerbridge producing numerous changes and her teammates helping her achieve a scoring record it was only a matter of time that she found her third of the night. In the 31st minute Melissa Busque would find Outerbridge who put home the hat-trick and her 17th of the year pulling her one goal behind Kelly Parker who holds the Fury's all-time mark of 18 goals in a season, albeit Parker achieve that feat in 14 games while Outerbridge finishes at 17 goals through 12 matches. Toronto would collect a couple opportunities of their own that would see Jasmine Phillips have to be sharp to punch an Adrienne Ruhe-Lischke shot over the bar and then Casey Ramirez clear a sure goal off the line from a Zakirya McIntosh shot. The Fury women would add a fifth in the 42 minute when Melissa Busque made a 50 yard run and slotted the ball through to Jessica Shufelt who tucked home her 8th of the season and cap off a very impressive first half. Toronto were much tighter through central midfield and across the back in the second half, but Outerbridge, Shufelt and Busque continue to create chances. After two near misses from Outerbridge the parade of substitution began as Dom Oliveri was able to use his bench and replaced Outerbridge with Canadian National team striker Christina Julien. Audrey Bernier-Larose also relieved Fury captain Jasmine Phillips of her duty in goal and had to be lively on several occasions to keep the shutout in tact - the eighth clean sheet of the season for the Fury. While Ottawa's strike-force was at the center of attention all evening long the creative vision of midfielders Teresa Rynier, Alyssa Lagonia, Justine Wollner and Lydia Hastings generate countless opportunities for Ottawa while the central-defending duo of Amanda Fancher and Shay Eskridge was reminiscent of the tandem of Ashley Kennedy and Danielle Johnson from seasons ago. Not to be outdone Jennifer Skogerboe, Casey Ramirez and Ashley Seal were not only solid as wide defenders, but made timely runs forward to help give Ottawa strength in numbers in attack. With the win Ottawa extends their home unbeaten streak to 23 (21-0-2) and earned John Pugh his 100th regular season victory since taking over the Club following the 2002 season. The Fury Women will now prepare to host the Central Conference Championships beginning Saturday, July 23 at 3:00pm when the Fury Women play host to the Toronto Lady Lynx in the first of two semi-finals that will see the Laval Comets and Quebec City Amiral meet in the second semi-final at 6pm. The two winners from Saturday will advance to Sunday's Central Conference Championship Final that will kick-off at 3:00pm.
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